'She's a proper dramatic actress': Ludwig and Peep Show star David Mitchell on Yorkshire's Anna Maxwell Martin

The cosy crime drama has become a staple of British culture, with series such as Death in Paradise and Midsomer Murders beloved by audiences.

When Ludwig, a series about a master puzzle-setter-turned-detective starring David Mitchell, first aired in 2024, it was a huge success, winning Best Comedy Series at the International Emmys.

Created and written by Mark Brotherhood, the series returns for its second season, with Mitchell and Yorkshire Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin reprising their roles as John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor and Lucy Betts-Taylor.

Fleabag star Sian Clifford and Scottish actor Mark Bonnar are joining the cast as local MP Joanne Kemper and newspaper editor Gareth Fisher, respectively.

Mitchell’s John is now employed as a crime-scene consultant, working alongside Dipo Ola’s DI Russell Carter on cases for the Cambridge Police Authority.

His identical twin brother, James, is still missing, but John has been banned from using police resources to search for his sibling or uncover exactly what James was investigating.

But John refuses to give up, and neither will Maxwell Martin’s Lucy, who is married to his missing brother.

Mitchell, 52, who first rose to prominence alongside Robert Webb as part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, says he feels proud of the series, which fulfils the kind of ambition he dreamed of while studying at Cambridge University.

“I’m a big fan of detective shows. I grew up in Oxford and went to Cambridge, and I loved Inspector Morse,” says the Peep Show actor.

“I think setting Ludwig in Cambridge was a big part of its appeal, and I’m particularly pleased when we’re actually filming there because Cambridge is a difficult place to film.

"It’s picturesque and full of tourists, but the bits that we have filmed there were some of my happiest filming experiences.

“Partly because when I was a student, I really wanted to be an actor and a comedian, and I didn’t know how that would work out.

“So I like thinking that my former self would be pleased with me coming back to film a detective series, so that’s a nice feeling.”

Speaking about returning for season two, Mitchell says: “We were very glad that the series was recommissioned. It was lovely to come back to.

“When you’re making the first series, you don’t know whether people are going to like it or watch it. We were very pleased with how well the first series was received.

“Ludwig seemed to be the show that people were talking about, and that was delightful. It was a much less stressful series as you knew people were watching it.”

Mitchell, who also hosts the BBC panel show Would I Lie to You?, says he first met 49-year-old Beverley-born Maxwell Martin when she appeared as a panellist on the show.

“Before we did the first series, I’d only met her once for an episode of Would I Lie to You?, so I didn’t know her at all well, but I’d been a big fan of her work.

“When I was told she was going to play Lucy, I was really pleased but intimidated, because she’s a proper dramatic actress. I thought, ‘This is going to test my abilities’, but she’s great to work with.

“She’s very funny and fun on set, and you’ve always got the comedy as well as the drama and things. She has a similar approach to filming to me, which is quite simply, let’s get some great stuff and get it done while having a nice laugh at the same time.”

Speaking about Clifford and Bonnar joining the series, he says: “It was very exciting, I think because they’re both brilliant. I’m a fan of both.

“When they came to the show, they brought very different energies. Mark played a very comic character so brilliantly; he was a great injection of comedy. Meanwhile, Sian is a big injection of drama and intrigue.

“It’s very confidence-building for the production to have such talented people who were keen to join our show.”

Mitchell, who played the pessimistic and socially awkward Mark Corrigan in Peep Show, is often asked about the character and how he compares with Ludwig.

“I don’t see myself as either. Mark Corrigan is fundamentally a piece of sh*t. He’s not a nice man. My thought at the time was that he’s very, very selfish.

" John Taylor in Ludwig is far nicer and far cleverer than me, and I certainly wouldn’t claim to have his analytical skills.

“I can understand where he is coming from in terms of his shyness.”

In Ludwig, John, who usually lives a solitary life, takes on the role of his twin brother James and adopts his family, job and life.

“He’s surprised because he finds the workplace quite unbearable, but I don’t think he finds being with Lucy and her son difficult. He enjoys the companionship,” explains Mitchell.

“I think he closed himself off to that, and he didn’t seek a relationship in his life and all these things, and he’s now reflecting a bit on what he closed himself off from and that that is perhaps a waste of his life.

“So, that realisation is, you know, it’s a happy realisation that he can live with other people, but there’s also the sad realisation that he wasted a lot of his life not going out and meeting people.”

He adds: “Our show is very picturesque and quite cosy and intriguing, but there is darkness too.”

Series two of Ludwig premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Thursday, August 20.