Last month, a new comedic crime series was released on BBC here in the UK, entitled Ludwig. Newspaper articles are positive about the plot and the acting, but as surprising as it might seem, this TV show also holds a number of useful ideas that we can employ in the workplace.
First of all, what is Ludwig? The brainchild, so to speak, of brainy actor-writer David Mitchell (from Peep Show and Would I Lie to You? among other shows), Ludwig is about a man, John, who is a solitary type who works as a puzzle-setter (he publishes his work under the name of Ludwig, inspired by Beethoven). John, it turns out, has an identical twin brother, James, a detective with the police. After a particularly tricky case, James disappears, and his wife, Lucy, and son, Henry, enlist John to try to figure out what happened. This involves John unwillingly pretending to be his brother, going to work at the police station and solving crimes while attempting to get access to files that might reveal information about James, what he was working on and where he might be. So far, so silly.

But within this somewhat intricate plot with all its complications – who knew there were murders on a daily basis in the quiet, academic city of Cambridge? – there are many important lessons about challenging ourselves as a way of developing and growing, and about the use of puzzles.

Despite being identical twins and despite Lucy’s help in giving John information about James, John can’t quite be James, for obvious reasons. He is himself acting as James, and there are a number of small differences between the two men, which, strangely, no one really seems to notice, despite the fact that John/James is working in, of all places, the police force, where you’d think that people are trained to be observant. Besides their natural variations, John also can’t quite bring himself to completely subsume himself to his role; for instance, he (sensibly!) needs to have a pen or two in his breast pocket, which his brother would never have done, given the nerdiness of the look. Lucy frets about this, but actually, John, in the role of James, gets praised for these small changes. People who knew James believe that this is James and that he’s made a few adaptations to his look, and they like it. This shows us that it’s okay to not stay the same, even if we assume that that’s what other people want from us. Sometimes people might object to the changes, but others will be neutral about them, or even positive, and ultimately, we have to be true to ourselves. John likes the compliments he receives, but more than that, he learns that people can handle change.