David Mitchell will star as John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor who assumes his detective brother’s identity. 

The BBC have announced the start of filming on Ludwig. No, not a revival of the odd 1970’s children’s animation, but a new detective series starring David Mitchell.

Ludwig is described as a genre-bending mystery-of-the-week crime comedy drama. Here’s the premise:

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?

Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty) also stars, playing John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James.

The wider cast includes Dipo Ola (Landscapers), Gerran Howell (Catch-22), Izuka Hoyle (Boiling Point), Dylan Hughes (Malory Towers), and Dorothy Atkinson (The Gold).

David Mitchell said:

“I’m delighted to be working in a genre of television that I have loved ever since, at the age of 10, I started watching the Miss Marple adaptations, starring Joan Hickson, with my parents. Sometimes the only thing that can bring the whole family together is murder.”

Ludwig comes from Big Talk Studios, in association with That Mitchell And Webb Company, for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The show’s creator and writer is Mark Brotherhood. The Executive Producers are Kenton Allen, Mark Brotherhood, Saurabh Kakkar, David Mitchell, Kathryn O’Connor and Chris Sussman, the Producer is Georgie Fallon. The Directors are Robert McKillop and Jill Robertson.

Oh, and that other Ludwig? Enjoy…