Ludwig is a new BBC mystery series available on iPlayer, and we’ve really enjoyed it this week! We got through all 6 hour long episodes in 3 nights. It’s absolutely brilliant.
First selling point is it stars David Mitchell, who I always enjoy (also see my review of his excellent history book Unruly!). Second is his character John is a professional puzzle setter (interesting), and an identical twin (potential for double Mitchell).
When John’s twin James disappears his very strong willed wife, and childhood best friend, Lucy (her from Motherland) cajoles him into impersonating James to help her investigate the mysterious note he left, and the conspiracy it implies. The hook is that James is a DCI working on homicides, and John soon finds himself unable to resist using his puzzle skills to prodigiously solve murders along the way.
David Mitchell is really great! Shy, socially awkward characters are his forte and I particularly enjoyed John. We don’t really know what adult James was like (only that he’s always been more confident and popular), but it does require some suspension of disbelief to accept that his colleagues at the police station don’t question his bumbling, inability to park the car and puzzle solving quirks!
If you can get past that it is a lot of fun! It’s funny and witty, the crime of the day was always a classic murder puzzle (it did put me in mind of Jonathan Creek!), and the central mystery had me guessing to the end. As a mystery fan it’s always a good surprise when I don’t feel like I can predict what’s going to happen.
Lucy and James’ home is also gorgeously stylish, as is what is apparently Cambridge Police Station! I mean, there is no way it looks like that IRL, but it’s a very interesting filming location!
The cast also features smaller role for Karl Pilkington, I had no idea he acted outside of Ricky Gervais shit, and Sophie Whelan who I only know from Taskmaster S17 (where she is utterly bonkers!), so that was a treat. Oh and Finchy from The Office (also off of Game of Thrones).
I really loved this, and I’m praying for a series two because the end is left open for more! Highly recommend if you can get it on streaming!
This sounds good! One I’ll have to eventually make time for not just because the story sounds good but also for Anna Maxwell Martin who I like from her days in the Bleak House miniseries. 🙂
She’s really great in it, and her character is also really strong! I also want all of her outfits, so many incredible jumpers!