Hammer Horror meets Miss Marple in this ridiculously twee whodunnit: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews BBC's Ludwig

Ludwig (BBC)

Rating:

Last week's Ludwig ended with David Mitchell, as the cross-word-setting sleuth, declaring, 'This is absolutely ridiculous!' 

Viewers who have stuck with the show into its second series might feel he was stating the flaming obvious.

Ludwig's schtick is to treat each murder mystery as a variety of brainteaser, such as a chess problem or a spot-the-difference puzzle. 

So far, the amateur detective in his corduroy jacket hasn't cracked a crime by arranging nine suspects into a sudoku grid, but I'm willing to bet there's just such a plot in the works.

With sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), he's investigating the local MP, on suspicion of carrying out human sacrifices to achieve eternal life. 

That's a sort of Agatha-Christie-does-Hammer-Horror combination, Miss Marple vs the Wicker Man. Absolutely, as David says, ridiculous.

Mitchell, a quick-witted panel game player but a one-trick actor, plays the bumbling crime consultant exactly as he played loans manager Mark in Peep Show: fussy, nervy, aware of his social awkwardness but unable to do anything about it.

Jason Watkins portrayed a similar character in McDonald & Dodds, and made him believable by fading into the background whenever possible. 

Ludwig doesn't do that: when he arrives at a crime scene, it's the CID squad who take a step back, only too willing to let someone else do their job for them.

I'm prepared to suspend my disbelief when an uninvited wedding guest staggers into the middle of a Scottish reel, and drops dead. I will ignore the fact that Cambridge police apparently have no forensics experts.

But I can't accept that DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) and his team are incapable of questioning suspects without the aid of a neurotic escapee from Mensa. 

When Ludwig suffered a panic attack, at the wedding reception that was now a wake, and bolted from the room, all the police dashed out with him.

For so-called 'cosy crime' to work, the psychology has to ring true, however incredible and outlandish the murders. Of course it's bonkers for priests, hairdressers and gangs of chums at a retirement village to be catching killers. 

That doesn't matter, as long as the relationships between characters make some kind of sense, rather than merely fulfilling the demands of the script.

On top of this, Ludwig is a mish-mash of genres that don't quite gel. Its subplot, involving corruption among politicians and the top brass, belongs in Line Of Duty, not a twee whodunnit.

The supporting cast do much to disguise this. Mark Bonnar, who plays local newspaper editor Gareth Fisher, is a crime show stalwart whose scenes provide ballast for the whole production.

And every week brings guest star cameos. This week Gary Beadle as a bolshie father of the bride and Michelle Greenidge as his sozzled wife. 

They were a splash of champagne in a show that is strictly supermarket prosecco.