The BBC has released first-look images for the highly anticipated second series of its acclaimed detective comedy-drama Ludwig, starring David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin. The new episodes will air later this year on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with Mark Bonnar and Sian Clifford joining the cast as series regulars.
Created and written by Mark Brotherhood, the series is produced by Big Talk Studios (part of ITV Studios) in collaboration with That Mitchell and Webb Company. Series one became the BBC’s biggest scripted series since 2024 and the largest comedy launch episode since at least 2018, attracting over 9.5 million viewers within 28 days.
Picking up from the first series, master puzzle-setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor (David Mitchell) is now a Crime Scene Consultant working alongside DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) on ‘impossible’ crimes for the Cambridge Police Authority. No longer masquerading as his brother, he is openly more ‘Ludwig’ than ever—brilliant at solving puzzles but hopeless at everything else. However, his identical twin brother James remains missing, and as an official employee, John is forbidden from using police resources to find him or uncover what he was investigating.
John, alongside his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), refuses to give up the search. Returning cast members include Dylan Hughes as Henry Betts-Taylor, Dorothy Atkinson as DCS Carol Shaw, Ralph Ineson as Chief Constable Ziegler, and Karl Pilkington as DI Matt Neville. New series regulars are Mark Bonnar as newspaper editor Gareth Fisher, Sian Clifford as local MP Joanne Kemper, Ben Ashenden as DC Ethan Cole, and Rumi Sutton as DC Caitlin Sullivan.
Ludwig series two (6x60’) is a Big Talk Studios production in association with That Mitchell And Webb Company, co-produced with BritBox and ZDF for the BBC. It was commissioned by Jon Petrie, BBC Director of Comedy. The series is written by Mark Brotherhood, directed by George Kane (episodes 1-3) and Stella Corradi (episodes 4-6), and produced by Georgie Fallon, with Anya Wilson as co-producer.
