Louis (BBC)
Last week’s Ludwig ended with David Mitchelllike the crossword sleuth who declared, “This is absolutely ridiculous!”
Viewers who followed the show in its second series may feel like he stated the flaming obvious.
Ludwig’s tactic is to treat each murder mystery as some kind of brainteaser, like a chess problem or a spot-the-difference puzzle.
So far, the amateur detective in his corduroy jacket has not solved a single problem crime by placing nine suspects in a sudoku grid, but I bet such a plot is in the works.
Together with sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), he investigates the local MP on suspicion of carrying out human sacrifices to achieve eternal life.
That’s kind of an Agatha-Christie-does-Hammer-Horror combination, Miss Marple versus the Wicker Man. Absolutely, as David says, ridiculous.
Mitchell, a clever panel game player but a one-trick actor, plays the bumbling crime consultant exactly as he played loan manager Mark in Peep Show: fussy, nervous, aware of his social awkwardness but unable to do anything about it.
Last week’s Ludwig ended with David Mitchell, as the crossword sleuth, declaring, “This is absolutely ridiculous!”
Jason Watkins portrayed a similar character in McDonald & Dodds and made him believable by fading into the background where possible.
Ludwig doesn’t do that: when he arrives at a crime scene, it’s the CID crew that stands back and is more than happy to let someone else do their job for them.
I’m willing to suspend my disbelief if an uninvited wedding guest staggers and drops dead in the middle of a Scottish film. I will ignore the fact that Cambridge Police apparently have no forensic experts.
But I can’t accept that DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) and his team are unable to interrogate suspects without the help of a neurotic Mensa escapee.
When Ludwig had a panic attack at the wedding reception, which was now a wake, and fled the room, the entire police force rushed out with him.
For so-called “fun crime” to work, the psychology has to make sense, no matter how incredible and bizarre the murders are. Of course it is strange when priests, hairdressers and gangs of friends arrest murderers in a retirement village.
That doesn’t matter, as long as the relationships between the characters make sense in some way, rather than just meeting the demands of the script.
Moreover, Ludwig is a mix of genres that don’t quite fit together. The subplot, which is about corruption among politicians and the top, belongs in Line Of Duty, and not in a second whodunnit.
The supporting cast does everything they can to disguise this. Mark Bonnar, who plays Gareth Fisher as the editor of the local newspaper, is a tough crime series whose scenes provide ballast for the entire production.
And every week there are cameos with guest stars. This week Gary Beadle as bolshie father of the bride and Michelle Greenidge as his drenched wife.
They were a splash of champagne in an all-supermarket prosecco show.
