‘Ludwig’ Plays Deadly Serious Games with Snooker
"Sometimes I like to set them up and watch them all fall."
Ludwig opens this week with a championship snooker match between arrogant Danny Sloane (Stephen Merchant) and Oliver Cowie (Martin Mayard) that ends in murder. It’s actually a rematch from 2005, but the relationship and rivalry between the two players go back to their early school days. Danny wins, and Oliver is found dead in his dressing room, killed while Danny was doing an on-camera interview.
Ludwig tries again to crack his brother James’ cipher, with no luck, until he’s called to the snooker crime scene. Sadly, Lucy now believes the cipher is a meaningless distraction to keep her and Ludwig occupied and safe. Russell takes John’s request for a ride in stride, including the detour to take Henry to school, and dispatches a uniformed officer as driver.
Lucy has been preparing for her interview with MP Joanne Kemper, but can’t resist looking again at the two 2004 deaths where Kemper was a witness, and James investigated and solved them. As Lucy points out, there was another person involved – fellow student Helena Moss (Kirsty Hoiles), who stayed in Cambridge after her graduation and now runs a flower shop. With time to kill, Lucy decides to visit as “Hildy Johnson” (the name is taken from the reporter heroine of the 1931 movie The Front Page). Helena’s business, Bramble & Moss, is upscale and elegant, and Lucy manages to chat her up a bit about Joanne Kemper. When Helena starts getting suspicious, she buys a very expensive vase of flowers and leaves, almost forgetting her credit card.
(More significantly, pleased at her deception, she’s also forgotten her credit card shows her real name.)
