Ludwig season 2: cast, plot and everything we know

David Mitchell as Ludwig holding a clapperboard to signal starting of season 2 filming

(Image credit: Big Talk Studios / BBC)

Ludwig season 2 will see David Mitchell return as John "Ludwig" Taylor, and filming has now started!

The hugely popular star says: "I'm delighted that John 'Ludwig' Taylor has failed to escape the clutches of the Cambridge police and will have to continue to face up to the city's alarming conundrum-based crime wave."

Mark Brotherhood, creator and writer, says: "We've all been blown away by the reaction to Ludwig and I'm thrilled we get to come back with a whole new set of puzzles for him to solve in his unique way".

We're assuming reading this guide, you've watched the end of the first series. Beware, there are major spoilers ahead if you haven't!

The first series of Ludwig followed David Mitchell's reclusive puzzle solver character as he headed to Cambridge to help his sister-in-law Lucy Betts-Taylor (Anna Maxwell Martin) track down her husband, his cop twin-brother James, who'd vanished in the middle of a case. It received glowing reviews and the ending perfectly sets up a second series.

Here's everything we know, including the new cast members...

Ludwig is Death in Paradise in Cambridge!

Ludwig season 2 release date

Ludwig season 2 has started filming now [September 2025], so a 2026 release date is looking most likely.

Ludwig season 2 plot

Chief Constable Ziegler in Ludwig — Is Chief Constable Ziegler corrupt? (Image credit: BBC)

The final episode of Ludwig season 1, saw John help Lucy escape a wrongful murder charge, but in doing so, he had to reveal to some of the team that he was not James, but John. He initially turned down a job offer as a police consultant, but then accepted it and season 2 will see him in this post.

Teasing the plot, the makers say: "Picking up from where things were left at the end of series one, master puzzle-setter John 'Ludwig' Taylor (David Mitchell) is now a Crime Scene Consultant working on 'impossible' crimes for the Cambridge Police Authority. No longer having to masquerade as his brother, he's openly more 'Ludwig' than ever — brilliant at solving puzzles but hopeless at everything else.

"But John's identical twin brother, James, is still missing, and now that he's an official employee of the station, John is forbidden from using any police resources to look for his brother or uncover exactly what he was investigating.

"Of course, John won't stop and neither will Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James — a puzzle needs solving and a husband and father needs bringing home. One masquerade may have ended, but a new one has just begun.”

It will be interesting to see how the show will achieve the same level of humour, given that Ludwig will no longer be pretending to be a cop. But not everyone knows the full story, including the suspicious Chief Constable Ziegler. At the end of the first series, we see John and Lucy take away boxloads of files written by blogger Sinclair, who was murdered. The second series will see John investigate what's in those files and whether Ziegler was involved in Sinclair's death.

James revealed that while he did think there was something evil going on within the Cambridge police force, the real reason he vanished was that he wanted to leave his family. It's heavily hinted at in the first series that John is in love with Lucy and with his brother now out of the way, John has a chance to explore his feelings. Might John and Lucy get together?

Ludwig season 2 cast

imon Evans (GERRAN HOWELL); Russell Carter (DIPO OLA); Alice Finch (IZUKA HOYLE); — The key team are expected to return (Image credit: BBC)

Returning for series two alongside David and Anna are Dipo Ola as DCI Russell Carter, Dylan Hughes as Henry Betts-Taylor, Dorothy Atkinson as DCS Carol Shaw, Ralph Ineson as Chief Constable Ziegler, and Karl Pilkington as DI Matt Neville.

Mark Bonnar (Dept. Q, Shetland) joins as newspaper editor, Gareth Fisher, Sian Clifford (Fleabag) as local MP, Joanne Kemper, Ben Ashenden (Black Mirror) as DC Ethan Cole, and Rumi Sutton (After the Flood) as DC Caitlin Sullivan.

Is there a trailer?

No, not yet.

Behind the scenes and more

Ludwig season 2 will be filmed around Cambridge in 2025 — check out our Ludwig locations guide. Ludwig is a Big Talk Studios production in association with That Mitchell And Webb Company. Series two will again be written by Mark Brotherhood. The executive producers are Kenton Allen, Mark Brotherhood, David Mitchell, Kathryn O’Connor and Chris Sussman.