David Mitchell stars as John “Ludwig” Taylor, a reclusive but brilliant puzzle maker who’s facing one big conundrum in the cozy BritBox comedy Ludwig (premiering with two episodes on March 20 in the U.S.). When his semi-estranged twin brother, a detective, goes missing, he agrees to step into his shoes as a one-time favor for his beloved sister-in-law, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin)… and winds up having to solve a murder.
Thankfully, Ludwig’s puzzle-solving brain makes him a whiz, Mitchell tells TV Insider, adding that the premise is a physical comedy gold mine. “The thing that first drew me to the project, comically, is that once you accept the premise that he absolutely looks identical to his brother, that there is no one who will not accept that he’s his brother, that just frees it up for so much comedy.” Ludwig can “fail to such a greater extent [at work] than would otherwise be plausible for someone impersonating an officer,” he says.
“That comic juxtaposition, I thought, well, that’s great,” the Peep Show alum continues. “To be able to have that broad, but within the premise of the program, plausible comedy alongside the intriguing murder mysteries, I thought from the start, this is an interesting idea for a program.”
BritBox
Ludwig also deals with a bigger loss, as childhood flashbacks show how these identical twins wound up living opposite lives.
“He’s one of two twins who had a slightly difficult childhood. Their father disappeared, and obviously that was a huge blow to both of them, and therefore they took two different routes in life,” Mitchell explains. Both brothers are in the business of solving puzzles, just in completely different circumstances. Ludwig will find himself setting records for his brother’s police department as he figures out mysteries in as little as one meeting. This stubborn homebody is intrigued enough by these unsolved cases to continue solving them, and it’s Lucy who keeps him focused on finding James.
There was a time when John, James, and Lucy were inseparable, but their father’s sudden departure changed the boys forever. The effects of the abandonment manifested very differently for each twin, and those differences made them grow apart as they aged. When we meet the adult Ludwig, he’s closer with his sister-in-law than he is his own brother.
“The brothers met Lucy when they were children,” Mitchell shares, but it’s James who winds up marrying Lucy and having a son with her, “whereas John doesn’t marry anyone. He doesn’t have that sort of relationship, we don’t think. And he goes into his puzzle setting world.”
Anna Maxwell Martin as Lucy in Ludwig (BritBox)
“They’ve got a lot in common, but just it wasn’t a romantic thing for them,” Mitchell adds, nothing that Ludwig and Lucy’s “bond” is “crucial to keeping John willing to carry on with it, trying to investigate what happened to his brother. There’s more of that hinterland to be found out about him in future series.”
Working with Martin, Mitchell says, “was just brilliant.” “She’s such a terrific actress,” he gushes, hinting that the Ludwig-Lucy scenes were some of his favorite to film. “I felt privileged to be able to work with her.” As for how the mystery progresses after Ludwig catches the crime-solving bug, Mitchell says to expect some answers by the end of Season 1 and new questions heading into Season 2.
“The brother disappearance is an arc that goes across the whole series,” Mitchell reveals, “and there is some resolution of that, but that mystery continues because we’re making a second series.”
That’s surely happy news for anyone charmed by this endearing mystery-comedy.
Ludwig, Thursdays, BritBox