Even in our increasingly connected world, there's a vast ocean that separates Britain from the United States. British movies and television find it difficult to cross the expanse and get into American homes. Back in the '80s you had PBS and that was about it. Then in the '90s and early '00s, VHS and DVD collections of shows like The Young Ones and Blackadder popped up — but only if the publisher decided to code the region for US players. It wasn't until YouTube and streaming became a thing that British entertainment found a place in America.
And that's why so many people here haven't heard of David Mitchell. Did you see Peep Show? Or That Mitchell and Webb Look? Or Upstart Crow? No? Maybe? Certainly you must have seen him on QI or his 164 episodes of Would I Lie To You? No? The most David Mitchell we get over here in America is his two episodes as "Mitch" the alien on Phineas and Ferb or his two episodes of Peppa Pig where he plays Police Officer Panda. He was a robot once in Doctor Who; that at least plays in the States.
So leave it up to niche TV streamer BritBox to deliver the neatest show I've seen in a while, Ludwig, starring the aforementioned David Mitchell and created by Mark Brotherhood. The conceit is that Mitchell plays a reclusive puzzle designer, John Taylor, who's pulled into a police conspiracy when James, his identical twin brother, goes missing. James's wife, Lucy, played by Good Omens' Anna Maxwell Martin, convinces John to take James's place for a day to see if there are any clues at the Major Crimes Division in Cambridge where James works. But nebbishy John gets pulled into one of James's cases immediately and discovers that his talents at puzzle solving – and puzzle creation – give him skills the rest of the department desperately lacks.
Each episode plays out as the case-of-the-day, enhanced by John and Lucy's hunt for clues to James's whereabouts. There's a murder in a church. There's a murder at a construction site. There's a murder in a locked room at a private school. (British rules around calling certain schools private and certain schools public are still confusing to me, so I just picked the US equivalent.) And every time, John uses his talents at decoding, logic puzzles, and even chess to suss out the murderer. It's a show that wears its cleverness on its sleeve, but Mitchell is more than up to the task.
His background is in humor, and Ludwig doesn't make the mistake of wasting a sharp-witted comedian's talents by making them play straight drama. John's life as a puzzlemaker has left him more or less an introverted shut-in, so his emergence into police life, expected to be a fully formed case cracker, is nothing short of delightful. His wit is quick and bitter but always funny. He can't drive. He hates the things his brother loved. He doesn't get cell phones. John can't just pick up his brother's life because he's made himself so different in all the years that the two have lived apart. He's even gone as far to publish all his puzzles under the name "Ludwig" to further anonymize himself.
But as the successes pile up, John finds himself having fun solving crimes and taking over his brother's life. In the six episodes this season, we see John first reluctantly agreeing to help his sister-in-law with a simple, one-off mission, then digging in his heels and resisting being taken out of the department by the end. He revels in his parlor scene reveals and outsmarting killers who think they've planned the perfect crime. The audience loves to go along for the ride, looking at the clues with John and seeing how his mind puts them together. The overarching storyline of James's disappearance and the police corruption behind it almost gets lost as we dig into each week's whodunit.
I've seen advertising for Ludwig all over my socials for a while, with it taking Fisk's place as IMDb's latest ex-US obsession. I figured that it was a neat enough premise and I liked Mitchell enough (I discovered him through YouTube downloads of QI, now I own several of his books) that I'd seek it out. Really, it's the detail-oriented crime-solving show that we've all been missing since Poker Face went on hiatus. In the tradition of great British mysteries, Ludwig keeps you guessing who the killer is until the brilliant detective reveals the plan at the end, but it's always an eye-opener rather than a predictable drag.
The disappearance of James fills in all the cracks between cases. Maxwell Martin starts off concerned for her husband, but by the end is obsessed with the overwhelming mystery behind his disappearance, tracking down leads and connecting the dots herself. She makes the jump from portraying a grieving spouse to a serious investigator as John gets distracted with his latest case that he is thoroughly unqualified to lead. By the sixth episode a conspiracy has emerged. What you thought was a simple disappearance (like those are ever simple) has now become something altogether more expansive and sinister. It's a cliffhanger that is very well deserved.
Aside from Mitchell and Maxwell Martin, the rest of the cast do take a back seat, despite some good repartee and attempts at characterization. Nosferatu's Ralph Ineson and An Idiot Abroad's Karl Pilkington make a few appearances, and the great Sir Derek Jacobi guests in episode 5 as the Taylors' old schoolteacher. Given more than six episodes, the group of detectives would probably have stood out more and gotten their time to shine, but alas, British television always leaves us wanting more.
It's a good thing, then, that Ludwig was a big enough hit that a second series is on its way. (The renewal announcement followed a day after the final episode aired.) In the meantime, you can watch all six episodes on BritBox.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
