[David9694]

Wow, I’m actually watching some of the BBC’s own current (ish) output. Like in person Saturday shopping, this was a staple years ago, and has dwindled away in recent times.

I like Lucy Worsley overall, but the latest Investigates isn’t breaking significant new ground – it’s slim pickings. The one on Jack the Ripper copiously avoided yet more speculation on the perpetrator – hooray! – and was more about audience appetite for reaction to lurid crime reporting; it told you a bit more about the victims’ broken lives. There was something pulled out about the scale of the harrying of the north. There was some mildly interesting background on Guy (“Guido”) Fawkes’s military career fighting the Spanish.

I’d recommend Ludvig if only for Anna Maxwell-Martin, who is by far the best and most believable thing in the show, and (of all things) the design. Although the look is fresh and diverse, please check your disbelief at the bar for what follows. Wear your comedy-drama hat as none of this is going to stand up in court.

If I have this straight, your husband / identical cop brother has disappeared and your response (as Mr Bean meets Inspector Morse) is – checks notes again – to assume his identity as said cop to look for clues?

Mark from Peep Show is a bit older now and is fleetingly established as a master setter of puzzles – and uses these skills to deduce a murder suspect from an Agatha Christie style collection, each of whom might be hiding something. The historic city tour group set-up is borrowed from Morse; the tower block building site with just six people at work on it was at least, er, original.

We’re up to episode 4 and the hunt for clues to decrypt the messages left by the missing man has slowed to a crawl. Why? Because like in 1980/90s Oxford, people in Cambridge will just keep on getting themselves murdered, thus sucking our hero in along with his mysterious side-kick and Keystone junior entourage.

I shall watch to the end, knowing that series 2 is on the way and therefore the missing man will continue to elude us. I hope the Beeb continues to have new successes like this.

Topic

[brooksby]

Do you remember that the end

Do you remember that the end of children’s telly on BBC for a long time had these weird five minute long Czech animations?

[Rendel Harris]

David9694 wrote:

* that’s coming from someone now in the market for a couple of Hill Street Blues DVDs. I vaguely remember it and was reading a recent re-appraisal saying how influential it was, how its DNA could be found in many other cop shows. 

Channel4.com has every episode of every series available to watch on demand free; here’s a link to the pilot:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/hill-street-blues/on-demand/2290-001

[David9694]

wtjs wrote:

and particularly enjoy her obvious delight at dressing up in period costume!

I recall thinking exactly that when she was dressing up in Russia, or maybe it was Vienna

You two need to go for a bike ride. 

[David9694]

Since posting I’ve got to the

Since posting I’ve got to the end of Ludwig and I’d say it was a relatively* worthwhile watch. 

The last 15 minutes of the final episode were as though the scriptwriter had just got the nod from the top floor about a second series and had about 24 hours to amend things before they were due to shoot.  Clearly it would have been game over if the missing man had have turned up, but we got a shadowy glimpse of him. 

* that’s coming from someone now in the market for a couple of Hill Street Blues DVDs. I vaguely remember it and was reading a recent re-appraisal saying how influential it was, how its DNA could be found in many other cop shows. 

[ktache]

There were a lot of cheap

There were a lot of cheap European, often eastern, cartoons when I was young. One featuring a big dog stands out, Snakes on the Road, which we found hilarious.

[ktache]

She’s not been dressing up in

She’s not been dressing up in this series.

In her first few series she reminded me of a Gerry Anderson puppet.

[Drinfinity]

Ah, Ludwig!

Ah, Ludwig!

[brooksby]

Have to admit, when I heard

Have to admit, when I heard that they were making a TV series called ‘Ludwig’, my first thought that it would be about a mechanical wood-pannelled egg.

Showing my age, I guess…

[quiff]

From the post title I was

From the post title I was hoping this might be a new collab. 

[wtjs]

and particularly enjoy her

and particularly enjoy her obvious delight at dressing up in period costume!

I recall thinking exactly that when she was dressing up in Russia, or maybe it was Vienna

[Steve K]

I enjoyed Ludwig.  Obviously

I enjoyed Ludwig.  Obviously you have to completely suspend belieft, but that’s true for most crime dramas.

[brooksby]

I quite like Lucy Worsley,

I quite like Lucy Worsley as a presenter, and particularly enjoy her obvious delight at dressing up in period costume!

(I gave up on Ludwig after about two episodes).

[Author]

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