David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin are back in Ludwig, the record-breaking BBC murder mystery, with season two now available to stream on BBC iPlayer. The show's first season drew a total of 11.8 million viewers, making it the broadcaster's biggest scripted series since 2024. A third season has already been confirmed.
John's new role and ongoing mystery
In the new season, John can finally drop the facade of impersonating his missing twin brother and now works as a crime scene consultant for Cambridge Police as himself. However, the truth behind his brother's disappearance remains unresolved, keeping the central mystery alive.
According to Digital Spy, the 'stakes are even higher' than before. Their review noted: 'There's still plenty of the gentle humour that made the first season such an enjoyable watch. John remains gloriously ill-equipped for many of the social situations he finds himself in, while Mitchell's performance as the puzzle setter continues to make his eccentricities feel endearing rather than irritating.'
Critical reception and Mitchell's reflection
The Irish Times called it 'Peep Show with added murder and fantastic fed-up chemistry', while The Times described it as 'as brilliant as ever'. The Guardian's five-star review praised it as 'cosy crime at its bumbling best' and 'up to its elbow patches in nostalgia'.
Not all reviews have been glowing. The Independent compared it to a 'comforting but slightly tasteless cup of tea' and labelled it 'time-wasting'.
Reflecting on the popularity of cosy crime dramas like Ludwig, Mitchell offered a cautious take: 'The truth is that we live in troubled times. The golden age of crime, as they call it, was the 1930s, and that's when people disappeared into their Dorothy L. Sayers novels, and Agatha Christie. That was also an extremely troubled era. Let's hope that this cosy crime boom ends more happily than the 1930s one did.'
