BBC Teases First Look at David Mitchell's 'Ludwig'

David Mitchell’s long-awaited return to the BBC has started filming. The project was announced in May 2023, his first since 2016’s Upstart Crow. BBC Comedy Director Jon Petrie announced at the Comedy Festival in Cardiff that one-half of the team who made That Mitchell & Webb Look would return to the Beeb with a brand-new six-part show that was a police procedural mystery series titled Ludwig.

To be fair, police procedurals are some of the highest-rated series in the U.K. (and on television in general). Moreover, starring in mystery series has given more than one British comedian a career makeover as a dramatic actor, from Sanjeev Bhaskar with Unforgotten to Gemma Whelan in The Tower. But for those who worry Mitchell is going for the tough cop routine and hanging up his jokes, there’s no need to be concerned. The man who served Grey Sludge in the Tent during his stint on Celebrity Baking Show would never.

The BBC describes Ludwig as a “genre-bending detective series.” More specifically, Ludwig is a “case-of-the-week mystery-crime-comedy-drama.” (This is my new favorite genre.) In a statement along with the first image from the show, 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.”