Humax TV Tonight: Ludwig

David Mitchell’s new comedy Ludwig starts tonight at 9pm on BBC One or stream it now on iPlayer.

Puzzle setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor’s life of solitude is upended when his identical twin, DCI James Taylor, disappears. Drafted in by his sister-in-law Lucy, John reluctantly assumes his brother’s identity as a detective in the Cambridge Police Authority in order to find clues to his brother’s whereabouts.

John is tasked with infiltrating the major investigations team, gathering information and solving a completely unconnected murder, all whilst remaining in character as his brother. A difficult ask for anyone, let alone a reclusive puzzle-setting genius who rarely leaves the house. Can this master of all things cryptic crack his biggest puzzle yet?

Speaking about the series, David Mitchell said: “I think fundamentally it’s about the murders and the puzzle solving. I think that’s what is so escapist and satisfying about this genre, the light meringue of a pleasing plot. Another thing that I like about it is that it’s not gritty. It is cosy murder of the old school. So even though the crime at the centre would be an absolute abomination if it happened in real life, we all benefit from the murder-mystery convention – if you like, the Agatha Christie tradition – so we don’t dwell on what murder really is, on the horrific nature of the crime.

We focus on the context and the mystery and the play of human emotions that leads to it. I have been slightly disappointed, I suppose, by the recent trend of a lot of programmes to really embrace the horror and emphasize the realities of loss and fear that crime causes. That’s not what I’m in it for as a viewer and I don’t think I am alone in that. In Ludwig we don’t dwell on the fact that it’s murder any more than in a game of Cluedo you’d start thinking, ‘But how awful for Doctor Black’s family. He must be so missed.”