If we were fan casting the next big detective to crack a gritty whodunnit mystery on our screens, David Mitchell from Would I Lie to You? would not be the immediate choice.
But the hackneyed expectations of a boozing, troubled detective have been replaced with a new popular prospect: the smoothed edges of a cosy crime caper.
Poker Face, Only Murders in the Building, The Thursday Murder Club: we can’t move for watered-down deaths that are explained away by docile amateur sleuths in a saccharine setting. Into this murder mystery canon, Mitchell is a much more natural fit.
In the Ludwig he plays John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor, an agoraphobic, possibly-neurodivergent recluse who passes his days as a professional puzzle maker – or “the Elvis Presley of puzzle-setters”, as he’s dubbed. This quiet existence is interrupted when his identical twin brother James vanishes.
John’s sister-in-law Lucy, played by Anna Maxwell Martin in an enviable wardrobe of autumnal jumpers, enlists his help. This is where things start to get a bit daft, but bear with, because it works in the mood of the show.
Lucy sends for John to come to Cambridge, where she unfolds her silly scheme: John is to walk into the picturesque university town’s police station posing as his detective brother, so he can get in for a good snoop of the office and skedaddle with his brother’s trusty notebook.
You know what they say about best laid plans. Soon John – as James – is pressed into attending the crime scene of a dead solicitor. There, the puzzle-solving side of his brain takes over and he inadvertently cracks the case. (“Bit awkward really,” he tells Lucy through his ancient Nokia brick. “I think I might just have solved a murder.”)
So starts a murder-of-the-week mystery with an accidental detective. “How often do people get murdered around here?” John asks. Quite often, it seems, so he puts his puzzle-cracking powers to use. The crime scenes range from a manor estate (classic) and an office (yawn) to a building site (offbeat) and a Cambridge walking tour (inspired).
Any amateur sleuths tuning in to Ludwig may be disappointed on this point. Motive, alibis, red herrings and suspects are inconsequential. The culprit is unguessable up until the moment John shows us his working, probably using spot the difference, or an elaborate process of elimination, or some cipher.
We’re not supposed to be able to work out the crime, but why would we need to try doing so anyway? In a whodunnit you can be confident you’ll be told the ‘who’ of it all eventually.
These weekly cases are more absorbing than the larger question of where exactly John’s brother James is, particularly once we start to delve into a boring backstory about their upbringing. But we can forgive all of that because Mark Brotherhood’s script is tremendous fun and is matched well with Mitchell’s idiosyncratic delivery. You’ll be tickled.
Mitchell – whose personality as John is much of a muchness with Mark from Peep Show, but slightly less snarky and imbued with the mental prowess of Will Hunting – would quite clearly be upstaged by Maxwell Martin were it not for the cracking comedic beats. He’s also well-matched with his leather jacket-wearing partner DI Carter (Dipo Ola).
The hour-long runtime is a bit of a stretch in a show that pulls the comedy lever more often than the dramatic one, but with just six episodes, it doesn’t drag as a whole. It could very well be the most fun you have watching TV this autumn.
Ludwig airs on BBC One from September 25 and is available to stream on iPlayer.
Deputy TV Editor
Previously a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape for Digital Spy, when she’s not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas.
When she’s not bingeing a box set, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we’re all watching.