David Mitchell Talks The Second Series Of The BBC’s Ludwig

Still Searching For Answers Among The Clues

The BBC’s Ludwig starring David Mitchell returns for a second series this week, 20 August, and here’s Ludwig himself talking about what we can expect…

Where do we find Ludwig at the start of this series?

At the start of this series, he’s discovered all this evidence and potential clues to the terrible thing that’s been going on that made his brother disappear. But it’s boxes and boxes. He’s quite happily pottering his way through them, trying to work out which of the conspiracy theories are absolute nonsense and which of them might have a kernel of truth. It’s like a big jumbo crossword that you can luxuriate over for a whole Sunday afternoon but, in this case, a Sunday afternoon might turn into months.

Meanwhile, Lucy has more of a sense of urgency. John can’t go into the police station very much, because there haven’t been any murders for him to be called in as a consultant on, which frustrates Lucy. She thinks the answer to the mystery is more likely to lie there than in these sterile boxes. But then, fortunately for the show, if not for the fictional characters involved, a spate of murders begins.

What’s John’s relationship with Lucy (played by Anna Maxwell Martin) like now?

Their relationship is a bit warmer than it was. There’s more trust in each other and their childhood closeness has returned. But there’s also a lot of sniping. The phase when Lucy was just incredibly grateful to John for putting his own life on hold and doing this has passed. Now she’s just frustrated by his timidity, his plodding approach, and his propensity to get distracted by murders.

What is it like working with Anna?

Anna is brilliant. She’s a wonderful actress, but also very funny and fun on set. She takes a similar view to filming as me, which is that it’s important to keep it light and have a nice time. Neither of us obsessively descend into our characters between shots. We just turn up and say the lines as best we can and try and have a laugh in between.

Can you tell us who Joanne Kemper (played by Sian Clifford) is?

Joanne Kemper is the MP for Cambridge, and various lines of inquiry that John and Lucy are following appear to lead to her. She’s obviously a very important person, with a lot of links to senior members of the police force. Her father was also the MP for Cambridge. She’s a senior person in her political party, so she’s powerful and connected, and intimidating. When John first meets her, he has a strong impression that she’s met James before. Something that, as a twin, he’s used to picking up on. Initially, we meet her because she just happens to be a witness to a murder. It’s a great bit of intriguing plotting by Mark Brotherhood, the writer.

What part does Cambridge play in Ludwig?

I went to university there, and I love it. You want people to enjoy slipping into this world like a pair of slippers, but with a dead body in them. Cambridge is obviously a great candidate for that. Inspector Morse is one of my favourite shows, but that was set in Oxford. That’s where people want to escape to in this kind of program. I think you’ve got to have a beautiful setting to juxtapose with the nature of the crimes.

What will audiences love about the new series?

The overarching plot thickens, but I think our main aim is to give people the same satisfaction, the same intriguing entertainment as we did the first time, and not to let that slip. I think Mark, the writer, has done a brilliant job and it draws you in even further.

Why do you think audiences love ‘cosy crime’ as a genre?

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.

Who is your favourite amateur sleuth?

I’m probably going to go old school and say Sherlock Holmes, although he would dispute being an amateur. He goes about it quite professionally, but he’s not the police. I like the feeling of his impossible brilliance. There are moments in the Ludwig script that are like that, where you don’t really think it’s plausible that a brain could do that.

If you had to solve a crime, who in the cast would you want to partner with?

I would hate the responsibility of having to solve a crime. I’m absolutely a carper from the sidelines, a sort of commenter, and a moaner. I’m very happy pretending to solve crimes. I think Anna would be pretty good at solving a crime, so I might choose her, and then she would basically get on with it. I think Dipo is very analytical so either of them would be pretty good.

How do you find the balance between humour and drama?

The balance between mystery and humour was something, particularly in the first series, that we were quite worried about getting right. It’s a comedy drama, not a straight drama. Although, my view is that any drama with no comic element is flawed. The main thrust is caring about the plot and the characters and then the comedy is decorative to that. The risk in Ludwig was putting too many jokes in, so the plot is undermined and becomes silly and a spoof. You need it to be broadly straight, but then to have funny elements that are believable for the characters.