Where was Ludwig filmed?
The setting for David Mitchell's detective series has a personal resonance for the actor.
David Mitchell's new comedy drama detective show Ludwig is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer, and while viewers will mostly be focusing on the quirky characters and the intriguing plots, they may also find themselves diverted by the show's impressive roster of settings.
Like any good crime drama, the series has a very specific sense of place, and also features a number of varied locations in which the weekly murders take place - from a school to a chapel, a building site to an office block.
But where did Mitchell and the rest of his cast mates, including Anna Maxwell Martin, Dipo Ola and Ralph Ineson, film the show and where is it actually set?
Read on for everything you need to know about the filming locations and setting for Ludwig.
Where is Ludwig set?
Like so many detective dramas, Ludwig is set in one major location, and leans in to the specificities of the area.
In Ludwig's case, this is Cambridge - which happens to hold a particular place in David Mitchell's heart, as he did his undergraduate degree at the university there.
When asked about the show's setting during a Q&A, Mitchell said: "Yes, I was a student there, and I love Cambridge. I'm delighted that it was set in Cambridge, because I genuinely feel that having a picturesque context is such a key part of the genre.
"Obviously, Inspector Morse - set in Oxford. Miss Marple - set variously in different villages. Poirot and Sherlock Holmes - set in the past, which we all know is more aesthetically pleasing, despite the horrible time people had living through it."
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Where was Ludwig filmed?
Given the show's setting, unsurprisingly a lot of it was actually shot in Cambridge, with Mitchell speaking about returning to the area during a Q&A.
"I've been back a few times," he said. "It was nice to be there filming something, because when I was there, I desperately wanted to get into acting and comedy as a job. And so I thought, 'Oh, there, look at me. This is my job.' So that’s a nice return, in a way.
"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.
"And so you look around the place, and you remember where you had fun when you were younger, the various rooms where friends of yours lived, and they're not there now. Other people are there now.
"And it's all about the terrible, sad passing of time, which is one of the things that we try and use television to distract people from."
When it comes to specific locations in Cambridge, the cast were spotted filming for the series around St John’s College, the Millpond and the River Cam.
Mitchell was also asked about some of his favourite locations used during the series as the setting for each crime, and said that doing one set in a stately home was "great" and "proper".
He continued: "But there's an episode where the crime is to do with a walking tour of Cambridge, and that's particularly nice because it's a lot of Cambridge exteriors.
"We shot that in January, but the weather was great, actually, it's sunny, and Cambridge looks lovely. I think that was probably my favourite sort of crime location."
There is also an episode where the crime takes place on a construction site, and while Mitchell called it a "great mystery", he said working on a building site "was not one of my childhood ambitions".
He continued, jokingly: "We were beneficiaries of the collapse of the British economy, because it's some buildings that people haven't got the money to finish. So we were allowed to film in them. But they probably won't be finished, they'll just be demolished."
When it was suggested the site could stand as a monument to Ludwig, to help boost the Cambridge economy, Mitchell said: "I can exclusively reveal that that location was not in Cambridge. The location is acting. It's pretending to be in Cambridge."
We know that the series also shot scenes at various locations in and around London.
Ludwig is available to stream in full now on BBC iPlayer.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.