LUDWIG - wed bbc 1 9pm - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

New series on weekly - thanks @mum2jakie for the shout out

Puzzle setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor’s life is upended when his identical twin, DCI James Taylor, disappears in the new series coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One

When John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor’s (David Mitchell) identical twin, James, disappears off the face of the earth, John takes over his brother’s identity in a quest to discover his whereabouts.

John has never married, never had a family and never really ventured further than his own front door.

Without a computer, mobile phone or even a television, he lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living, under the nom-de-plume of ‘Ludwig’.

However, filling the shoes of your identical twin is one thing - when your twin also happens to be a successful DCI leading Cambridge’s busy inner-city major crimes team the stakes are much higher.

John may be a master of all things cryptic, but can he crack the biggest puzzle of his life?

Joining David Mitchell in the ‘case-of-the-week’ crime comedy-drama is Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty), as Lucy Betts-Taylor, John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James.

Also joining the cast are Dipo Ola (Landscapers, We Hunt Together), Gerran Howell (Catch-22, Suspicion), Izuka Hoyle (Boiling Point, Big Boys), Dylan Hughes (Malory Towers, Maternal), and Dorothy Atkinson (Mum, The Gold).

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.

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.’

I really enjoyed this show apart from one thing. I didn't like how they gather all the suspects together at the end. And the only reason I don't like it is because it's exactly what they do in Death In Paradise (which i also love). It both annoys and delights me in DiP because it's ridiculous and also great and a signature of the show. So why copy the same here?
It doesn't put me off Ludwig, just irritates me a bit. David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin. What's not up love?!

Erm, DiP didn’t invent this!

Good old Agatha Christie adaptations (and many more) have been doing the same denouement for over a hundred years.

I read the scene differently, of young James and John reacting to their mother’s distress and their dad leaving. What did Lucy say, the event made James want to go out in the world and face things head on, whereas it made John want to hide and shut it out. That scene seemed like the seminal moment that that dynamic was set. I didn’t see James as selfish, he’s just a kid. I just saw him as rising to the occasion to be the grown up and take care of it, and like an adult he was protecting John, the child, from the mess. I actually thought it more unfair on James having to be adultified. I’m probably projecting!

James shut out John nye so maybe why he's like the way he is

I've just watched episode two but haven't read all the thread. It reminds me in a way of Peter Falk's Columbo, or Tony Shahoub's Monk, which I loved. Bit of a quirky outsider in their approach to problem solving, but that's how the mind works I suppose if you're clever enough to set crossword puzzles.

I really like Dorothy Atkinson, saw her as Pauline in Mum and she played that brilliantly, and Magpie Murders, which a few of us watched. Anna Maxwell Martin is one of my favourites too.

My 11 year old loved this. It is not too gory and the murders are really just mysteries for John to solve.

David Mitchell is brilliant. Did anyone see the quote from his wife about how lucky she feels to be married to him? They seem like such a lovely couple. I imagine their family life to be loving, full of kindness but high brow and academic. I always think their daughters must be incredibly bright and cherished by their parents.

@martinisforeveryone who was she in magpie murders. That was good

She played Lady Frances Pye @Blondeshavemorefun Scroll down here to remind you.
Magpie Murders episode 2 cast: Who are the guest stars? | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV | Express.co.uk

You don't have to watch that bit!

None of that matters here 🤣

Mmmm that's not what I took from it

I took that scene to convey that James was just the more comfortable one going in there and dealing with the mum and the truth and what's happened and John was actually more comfortable letting him deal with that.
Like the opposite of selfish

I loved Jam & Jerusalem- criminally underrated. and I have searched long and hard for the Christmas episode which I’ve not yet been able to find.

I really thought it was Zoe Wannamaker in this episode! But no it was Felicity Kendall!

I don't think it's to do with James

I think it's just because of the dad and everything

I'm still in post-holiday, post-uni-prep catch up mode. Watched ep 1 last night and thought it was genius. Really enjoyed it. (I'd actually sat down to watch The Wives but turned that off after half an hour!)

Yes, I'm not actually that invested in the crimes, it's all about the human relationships and his different way of thinking so that although he's so uncomfortable in his brother's shoes at work, he's actually good at the job 😀

All detectives need a cryptic mind 😂

And that he’s so into puzzles that the drive to solve one comes above any discomfort about anything else

Just watching episode 1 again and episode 2. I really like the music. That intro scene of episode 1 is clever now we know the episode conclusion. When I first watched it I assumed it was about the police officer Lucy’s husband and that it was the police station so I couldn’t make any sense of it at all.

This is really helpful. Thank you so much. It can be hard to know what to watch when certain situations can be unhelpful for me. (Sometimes things that I think will be completely fine, with the aim of actually trying to take my mind off things, can suddenly be unhelpful.)

I thought that it was Lucy's husband in episode one that had been murdered.
The bit with the crime tape and John was funny
Sort of thing that happens to me ( too frequently!)

Nearly at the end of Episode 1 - yes has taken me all day! It’s a really good series to watch scene by scene with full attention whilst doing other stuff in between.

In a previous post I said “Or even just his willingness to go completely out of his comfort zone to help her” about the scene where Lucy briefs him, he reads the letter and agrees to go. I got it wrong. It’s not Lucy! She can’t even directly ask him to come, has to arrange a taxi and then lure him by saying I’ll tell you when you get here. It’s the acrostic! When he said “Just in and out is it?” I thought it was an affectionate resignation to what she was asking, but he says it the same way he says “Cryptic, how?” in Episode 2 after marching across the office. He cannot resist an unsolved puzzle, it comes above everything else.

Which then made me think - his brother didn’t write that letter for Lucy. He wrote it for John. No affection or warmth, or explanation or what to do exactly, but it did contain an acrostic.

Looking forward to watching this slowly and changing my thoughts again.

Which then made me think - his brother didn’t write that letter for Lucy. He wrote it for John. No affection or warmth, or explanation or what to do exactly, but it did contain an acrostic.

Good observation that.

Tho a brother who never contacted him