Imagine Mark Corrigan from Peep Show growing up to become a puzzle setter who has shrugged off Jez and Croydon to live a quiet life. It’s not difficult, right? But that wouldn’t make much of a show, so let’s introduce twin brothers who are detectives who go missing while secretly investigating a case that they haven’t told their wives about.
That’s the premise of Ludwig, in which David Mitchell plays an older Mark-type character – called John – and his semi-estranged sister-in-law, Lucy (Anna).・Maxwell Martin) suddenly calls him and tells him. She wants him to come. There was a taxi waiting for him outside, a spare bed with three pillows, and Lucy would make him the pasta he had planned for dinner when he got there. As always, when Mark (now John) is involved, I – and I can probably speak for my fellow pedantic seekers here – feel like I’m being looked at. I feel that there is.
Reluctantly he goes. Even more reluctantly, he agrees to her plan to infiltrate the police station in the guise of her husband (twin James) and look for clues about what he was doing and what happened. . Mitchell is a master of social torment, so this is as excruciating as you want it to be. Inevitably, he becomes involved in a murder case that James’ team is working on, and thanks to his talent for puzzles and rigorous logical thinking, he solves the case on his own. Peep show meets monk. This has it all. Except for the fact that he is called Ludwig, which is John’s crossword setter pen name, which he adopted because he was listening to Beethoven when he compiled his first book. Well, let’s go.
From here, you’ll progress through the case week by week, utilizing John’s various puzzle-solving skills. Meanwhile, the mystery of James’ disappearance deepens, and John and Lucy grow closer in search of answers. Behind this is the mystery of why the twins’ father abandoned his family when they were young.
This is a very nice 6th episode. Every plot point or development has a lot of explanation, people point at the document during close-ups, carefully observe the name written on the office door, as if they’ve just discovered the clock. Lay out the timeline. Suspend the huge amount of disbelief required to make things work. Because Mitchell doesn’t have to play anything other than John and Mark. Lucy puts a jacket on James and takes a bank of pens from John’s pocket, but the effort at characterization ends there. Mitchell is no Alec Guinness, and John’s stuffed bunny won’t fool James’ coworkers. If I could muster up the urge to care, the idea would be foolish.
A secret notebook is recovered. A menacing Chief Constable (played by Ralph Ineson, most recently seen as a menacing DI in The Pier) appears as the wrong UN. James’ partner in the investigation also goes missing, and it’s unclear whether the new addition Russell (Landscapers’ Dipo Ola) can be trusted. But the only real tension comes from John’s suffering. Modernity does not suit him at all, much less constant interaction with colleagues and the public. “Buildings, offices, computers! All talking at the same time and moving around without any structure or purpose,” he said after the first day, with Mitchell’s trademark bemused exasperation. On top of that, John also has to deal with glimpses of his brother’s happy home life. This was always the kind of thing that was out of his reach.
Mitchell, as always, does a great job playing the role he was born to play. This is not worthy of faint praise. As long as you keep doing your crappy thing, no one has anything to complain about. Maxwell Martin, on the other hand, simply explains the relatively simple parts. Her ability to express it with nuance and warmth is a great help in creating disbelief and stagnation. The supporting cast do the best they can with the little money they’re given (no matter how ugly it is for Mitchell’s show), and the viewers all get a perfectly reasonable amount of money for their time invested. I think they will return home feeling that they have received something in return. As it turns out, anything more than that would leave all of us Mark-a enthusiasts far more perplexed than pleased.
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Ludwig is broadcast on BBC One and available on BBC iPlayer
