Let the glorious Ninth Symphony ring out (choral version, please) because the BBC’s superb cosy crime show, Ludwig, has returned for a second season. Back in 2024, the first season had us hooked and although it’s been a long wait, it looks like the BBC has used that time to ensure the new episodes are just perfect for those who loved season one.

Episodes are airing on Thursday evenings on BBC One from 20 August to 24 September 2026, with the first three available to stream on iPlayer from 20 August and the final set of three from 10 September.

Let’s catch up. Newspaper puzzle setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor (David Mitchell) was roped into impersonating his police detective twin brother, James, by his sister-in-law Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) because James had mysteriously disappeared. Using his prodigious puzzle solving skills, John bamboozled his police colleagues by solving cases quickly, brilliantly and bloodlessly.

And he held us in raptures as he tried strenuously to avoid detection, because although he is James’s twin, his personality is quite different. It’s possible he’s neurodivergent – he’s certainly focused on facts and has repetitive quirks such as testing the seat belts whenever he gets into a car. This is the perfect role for David Mitchell, and he’s masterful in season two as well.

As things get going, James is still missing and John’s cover has been blown, but he continues working with the now DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola) as a crime scene consultant. This gives him a little more scope to be himself and he seems more obviously flustered – irritable, even – when the cases prove harder to crack. It seems that Chief Constable Ziegler (Ralph Ineson) remains John’s nemesis as he, Lucy and nephew Henry (Dylan Hughes) continue investigating James’s disappearance across the series.

They have a huge pile of research to go through, which belonged to the murdered journalist Sinclair. Lucy will shoehorn her way into a job at the Anglia Advertiser in order to get a press pass, which she believes will give her greater access to important people as she tries to investigate. All the while, she thinks John will be able to use his time at the police station to look into whatever’s going on in the basement, where digital records compiled during season one are being sifted through by a secretive external team. They must know what happened to James, right?

While all that simmers in the background, John continues his frontline detective work, starting off with the case of two sisters who both claim to have stabbed their grouchy old mother to death in their box at the theatre. Two mirror image confessions to confuse the police, and John too, for a while… Then he has to figure out how an intruder at a wedding managed to drop dead in the middle of a ceilidh – stabbed to death and not one single Gay Gordon saw it! He starts off by focusing on the dance, which he sees as a moving gear puzzle.

Tackling the murder of a fashion influencer in episode three, he uses the street map of Cambridge like a maze puzzle. However, it seems that as the mysteries present themselves, his puzzle solving approach merely forms a base camp for a more nuanced deductive method, which makes sense. There’s only so far the scriptwriters can go with crosswords and sudoku.

All the things we loved about the first season are back. The writing and the dialogue, care of Mark Brotherhood, are sharp as brand new tacks and all the acting is on point. You may feel a little disappointed not to see the wagering pair of detective constables Finch (Izuka Hoyle) and Evans (Gerran Howell) but they have been replaced by another funny side duo – DC Ethan Cole (Ben Ashenden) and DC Caitlin Sullivan (Rumi Sutton) – for John Taylor to leave in his wake. Any hope they have of poking fun at him is soon quashed. Like Columbo and Morse, there’s a classic car – in this case it’s the old Saab 900.

There is the beautiful photography of Cambridge’s ancient colleges and the cathedral. You will also welcome the little in jokes that appear as motifs. John’s observation that two things can be true at the same time, the seatbelt thing and there’s a lovely little blood-ketchup gag too, for example. Season one featured some huge UK television stars in cameos – Felicity Kendall, Karl Pilkington, Rose Ayling-Ellis and Derek Jacobi – and in season two you can look forward to Stephen Merchant as a snooker player and Mark Bonnar as the editor of the Anglia Advertiser.

Themes of family, aging and loneliness give a poignant layer to the overarching storyline, but on the lighter side there is the musical accompaniment, which is literally and figuratively an Ode to Joy. All the little snippets of Ludwig van Beethoven’s harmonies continue to tinkle throughout each episode. The programme is coherently produced in every facet and music feels like a cherry on top.

Ludwig season one won Crime Show of the Year in our 2024 awards.