‘Ludwig’ review: A welcome addition to Britain’s amateur detective canon
Surely, if you’re an avid BritBox subscriber, you’ll have heard of Ludwig by now. Season 1 of Ludwig premiered on the BBC in the U.K. in October 2024 and soon became one of the most-watched scripted shows of the year. It’s no surprise that it’s already been renewed for a second season. Now, it’s about to arrive on BritBox, and trust me, you’ll be glad when it does.
If you love a British detective drama that likes to inject a healthy dose of comedy into its high-stakes proceedings, Ludwig is the show for you. When master puzzle setter John “Ludwig” Taylor’s (David Mitchell) twin brother, James, vanishes, John’s sister-in-law, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), concocts a slightly desperate and harebrained scheme to have John take his brother’s place. The only problem? James is a high-ranking detective with the Cambridgeshire police—a chief inspector, no less—and his disappearance has to do with an off-the-books case he’s been working on. So, who can John and Lucy trust? More importantly, how will John be able to convince his brother’s colleagues he’s the real deal?
Turns out it’s not as difficult as John thought it was going to be. With his puzzle-honed mind, he solves every murder case he’s dragged into with a flourish, surprising both himself and his brother’s fellow detectives with his brilliance. Part of what makes this show unique amongst British detective dramas in a similar vein is that it contains both a case-of-the-week type structure and an overarching mystery narrative. Most of the time, especially when it comes to U.K. TV’s more light-hearted mysteries, it’s one or the other, but here, the minor cases and the major one twist through one another, keeping the viewer on their toes and giving them a reason to tune in week by week.
Though Ludwig employs a fair number of well-known detective drama tropes—amateur yet genius detective, the locked-door mystery, gathering suspects to reveal the killer—the show still feels fresh. Much of that is down to David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin’s characters and their performances as John and Lucy, respectively.
John is a recluse; he’s brittle, set in his ways, arrogant yet fearful, brilliant yet undeniably socially awkward. That doesn’t matter to Lucy, though. She’s known him her whole life and knows, even when he doesn’t, that he’s capable of so much more than he thinks he is. She is much more capable, too, however. If anything, she’s leading the show; John might be the impersonator, but she’s the instigator—and not too shabby of a detective herself.
Their dynamic is a driving force in the show, and moments with both Lucy and Lucy’s son, Henry (Dylan Hughes), allow John to show off his empathetic side. John is still emotionally damaged by his father’s abandonment, and it still haunts him. He doesn’t want his nephew to suffer the same way—one shared scene between them is genuinely moving yet utterly authentic to who John is as a character. Ludwig creator Mark Brotherhood has managed to find that all-important balance of character development and case work, and the result is a genuinely funny, intriguing, complex, and even heartfelt new detective series.
I’ll admit that, going in, you will be forced to suspend your disbelief a bit. After all, how long can it truly take an entire team of trained detectives and higher police officials to realize that their co-worker is not acting like his usual self? Surely, they’re all aware that he’s a twin, and logically speaking, someone should have sussed him out in the first episode. Ludwig’s premise is slightly bonkers, and yet it’s hard to look away. Watching comic legend David Mitchell gradually learn to park his brother’s car and pull 100 different variations of a befuddled face is a genuine delight, and that, combined with the cast’s chemistry and the compelling premise, is more than enough for me.
The first two episodes of Ludwig premiere on BritBox on March 20, with new episodes dropping weekly until April 17.
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