Ludwig

I've only ever seen David Mitchell on Would I lie to you, but saw a trailer for this and it looked good so my husband and I settled in to try the first episode. Before we knew it, it was almost midnight and we had watched 3 episodes. All whilst laughing our socks off, giggling away and coming up with crazy theories to try and solve the case.

The characters are all endearing and the idea that you don't know who you can trust had us looking for the slightest hint and clue as to who was the dodgy party. Each episode has a different central murder to solve to keep you intrigued, whilst still having the main mystery of John's' brothers' disappearance.

We have now watched the remaining 3 episodes the next morning- desperate to get back to it and we think this is one of the best series we have watched in a long time. But there is still so much left unsolved- we are in dire need of a second series!!!

Every few years, thankfully we get a show like this. " Ludwig". Mark Brotherhood, the creator of this show deserves congratulations. What a fantastic premise.

James and John are twins. James is a cop and John is a puzzle book creative who goes by the name of Ludwig. James goes missing, and his wife, Lucy, summons John, to pretend he is James, to sneek in the police station to retrieve one item. But, luckily for us, it does not go that way. Several solved murders on, whilst still looking for James, more twists and turns. Kudos to Anna Maxwell Martin, as Lucy ( his wife), and Dylan Hughes, who plays the son Henry. Who also, if you watched "Maternity", was excellent as a dying kid. All the supporting characters are quirky and fairly well drawn out. This a great, great show.

"David Mitchell wants to do a series in which he solves crimes like Inspector Morse or Miss Marple. We'll go with Morse - complete with puzzles - swap Oxford for Cambridge and build in the loveable fogeyishness that Mitchell has made a career of." That's what they thought and and it was a great idea. They were on to a winner. It's completely daft, bears little or no relation to actual police work, but it doesn't matter a jot. Mitchell is great, Anna Maxwell Martin is a delight - she is great at portraying really nice people (I remember Esther Summerson from 19 years ago) - and Dipo Ola is great as the sidekick (what a great voice he has). What's not so great is casting Dylan Hughes as 15 year old. It's laughable. He is likeable and can act OK (except not as a schoolboy. Really, can't they find any decent teenage actors? I know they exist.) I watched the whole series while laid low with a virus. It was just the right thing.

A savant on the spectrum, acting as a detective, sees the tiny details other miss and then solves the crime, all while being enmeshed in a much bigger problem.

The characters are very likable, the plots are reasonably believable, and there is a refreshing lack of phony subplots.

Each episode is a stand alone case while the big problem consumes the entire series, so there is a satisfying ending to each episode while the big puzzle has some more pieces added to it.

Agatha Christie always ended her books with Hercule Poirot gathering all the suspects together and meticulously going through the crime, finally revealing the culprit. That was always my favourite part, and this series does exactly that.

My only quibble is that the last 2 episodes are very dark exposure wise, and it is very difficult to see what is going on at times.

Just binged this on iPlayer and loved it.

Nothing particularly original about it but was good fun throughout and kept you guessing throughout every episode.

It's a kind of mix of many different detectives/mystery programmes - Holmes , Poirot , Professor T , Jonathon Creek etc but done with a David Mitchel style.

The beauty is that it is not padded out with filler just to drag out each episode - it's the perfect 60 minute mystery so it chugs along nicely and sticks to the plot - with no annoying subplots that go nowhere. Its attraction is its simplicity and humour.

It's a very family oriented show with no violence , bad language , nudity , sexual content - it's just wholesome great TV viewing !!

I wish there was more like this being commissioned by the BBC that was as good a quality as this is. I'm not usually one for overcooking an idea into endless seasons until it becomes a parody of itself - but I do hope they make at least a second series.