David Mitchell is Ludwig in new BBC series. Photo: BBC / Colin Hutton

While there is joy in Mudville with the realization that there probably won’t be any additional Upstart Crow greatness from the mind palace of Ben Elton and featuring the brilliant David Mitchell as a young Will Shakespeare, there is news of a new “case-of-the-week crime comedy-drama” from the BBC, Ludwig, starring Mitchell.

Mitchell stars as John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor, assuming the identity of his missing identical twin brother, DCI James Taylor. Our first look puts Taylor in Cambridge in front of the Bridge of Sighs. Joining Mitchell in the series is Anna Maxwell Martin (Bletchley Circle, Motherland, Good Omens, Line of Duty), who will be starring as Lucy Betts-Taylor, John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James.

Anna Maxwell Martin in Line of Duty. Photo: BBC

According to the synopsis for the six-part series: “When John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor’s identical twin, James, disappears off the face of the earth, John takes over his brother’s identity in a quest to discover his whereabouts. John has never married, never had a family and never really ventured further than his own front door.

“Without a computer, mobile phone or even a television, he lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living, under the nom-de-plume of ‘Ludwig’. However, filling the shoes of your identical twin is one thing – when your twin also happens to be a successful DCI leading Cambridge’s busy inner-city major crimes team, the stakes are much higher. John may be a master of all things cryptic, but can he crack the biggest puzzle of his life?”

As filming has just begun, not target transmission date has been established as of yet but this is definitely one to keep an eye on on both sides of the pond.