‘Clever’ new BBC drama Ludwig has viewers changing their mind about paying TV licence

A new BBC drama has made viewers 'happy' about paying the cost of their TV licence - which is a stellar review if I've ever heard one.

Starring Would I Lie to You's David Mitchell, comedy drama, Ludwig, follows a ‘reclusive puzzle-designer’ called John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor (Mitchell) who is attempting to ‘unravel the mystery of his twin brother's disappearance’.

However, when he decides to take on his twin brother James's identity as DCI on Cambridge's major crimes squad, things begin to get tricky.

The show is relatively new too, having only made it's debut BBC One and IPlayer on Wednesday (25 September).

As well as Mitchell, it also features Bleak House's Anna Maxwell Martin as his estranged sister-in-law and Boiling Point's Izuka Hoyle, Dipo Ola and Gerran Howell as the police officers he ends up working with.

And if that isn’t enough to get you racing to BBC to watch it, then maybe the fan comments will.

One person wrote on X: “Stuff like this makes me happy to pay my tv licence, more of this BBC! Commission a second series - and I’m only one episode in!”

Another said: “No-one can play David Mitchell like David Mitchell.”

Meanwhile, someone else praised the 'excellent acting throughout from all the cast'.

One viewer, who also praised the 'clever storyline', called Mitchell 'perfectly cast', while another commenter said: "I have to say, that this is amazing. I haven't stopped laughing.

“David Mitchell is outstanding, along with a great cast. Well done everyone involved in the making of this.”

Mitchell revealed at a recent Q&A that it was 'nice' to film in Cambridge, which is also where he and his Peep Show co-star Robert Webb had studied as undergraduates.

As per Hello! Magazine, he said: "I've been back a few times but it was nice to be there filming something because when I was [a student] there I desperately wanted to get into acting and comedy as a job, so I thought, 'Look at me, this is my job!'.

"So that's a nice return. But obviously, I think anyone who moves away from where they went to as a young person or as a student will know that when you go back, it's filled with an unbearable poignancy which is part of the message that life conveys relentlessly that you're going to die one day.

"So you look around the place and remember where you had fun, the various rooms where friends of yours lived and they're not there now and it's all about the terribly sad passing of time which is one of the things we try and use television to distract people from."

And it's not the only show on the BBC that has hooked viewers, as some were even left eating their words after watching a divisive thriller series - despite them all initially having the same complaint.

You can watch Ludwig now on BBC iPlayer.