If I had to describe the new cozy mystery Britbox series Ludwig in just one line, it would be: Hercule Poirot meets Monk, with a puzzle-solving twist.
Ludwig is the nom de plume of John Taylor, played by David Mitchell. Mitchell also plays John’s twin, DCI James Taylor (not to be confused with James Taylor). John is a brilliant, awkward puzzle-setter. His brother is a police detective.
His brother has also mysteriously vanished, leaving a cryptic note for his wife, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin). Confused and frightened, Lucy contacts her brother-in-law and pleads with him to come and help. Reluctantly—John rarely ever leaves his house—he agrees, taking the taxi she’s already sent and making his way to his brother’s home, where Lucy and her son Henry (Dylan Hughes) live.
Lucy gives John a mission: Pretend to be James and infiltrate the police department where James has surely left his little orange notebook. Go to the office, grab the notebook, and get out. Once they have the notebook, they can start puzzling together where James has gone, and why his note to Lucy sounds so dire. Is he in danger? Is there some conspiracy at play involving the police?
John reluctantly agrees, but things don’t go quite as planned. For one thing, he doesn’t know anybody at the police station, and Lucy’s notes on James’s colleagues are woefully limited. Once at the police station, John is roped into a murder investigation by his brother’s partner, DI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola). Not knowing who to trust—James’s note made it very clear to trust no one—John finds himself on his first case. Because he’s a brilliant puzzle-solver, he quickly finds he has a knack for solving mysteries and extracting confessions from the killers.
The six-episode series follows a “murder of the week” format, all while John and Lucy try to puzzle together James’s mysterious disappearance. Each episode digs a little deeper into the overarching mystery, while also giving us a delightful new murder case to solve.
The cast is brilliant from top to bottom. Mitchell is wonderful as John Taylor, a man whose awkwardness, honesty and brilliant mind make him both a terrible spy and a magnificent detective. His colleagues at the station are also charming and, for the most part, instantly likable. Gerran Howell plays DC Simon Evans, a bumbling and adorable young detective. (You may recognize Howell from HBO’s The Pitt). His no-nonsense partner, DC Alice Finch is played by Izuka Hoyle. Ola’s DI Carter is a bit more mysterious, having recently been transferred to the department. John learns he has ties to Chief Constable Ziegler, played by Ralph Ineson, a man who John immediately suspects of some kind of foul play. The only person at the station who seems to suspect that John isn’t who he says, is IT specialist Holly Pinder (Sophie Willan).
Every episode of the show presents a fun new mystery that only Ludwig can solve. Fans of Agatha Christie-style cozy mysteries will have a blast puzzling these out alongside our endearing fake-detective. And the overarching mystery provides a deeper and more complex story to keep us invested. The series is clearly setup for a second season, and thankfully that season has already been confirmed by the BBC.
This is easily one of the best new mystery shows I’ve seen in a long time, and one of many great excuses to grab a BritBox subscription. The first two episodes are out now, with subsequent episodes releasing each Friday for the next four weeks.
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