Kat and I just finished Ludwig, and it’s one of the best shows we’ve watched in the last while. It’s got David Mitchell, murder, some laughs, England (Cambridge!), and stationery. What’s not to love?

Seeing as David Mitchell is master puzzle setter Ludwig, I expected he would use a lot of quality stationery. So being the stationery nerd I am, I did a deep dive into the stationery we see on screen. Inspired by Mr. Blank First Page’s excellent video on the stationery used in The Bear. But rather than wait for someone else to do the same for Ludwig, I decided to do it myself - except in blog form.

Home of a Master Puzzle Setter

We only really get to see Ludwig’s puzzle cave in the first episode before he sets off to Cambridge, but it’s a wonderful setting to introduce the series.

Cozy

First we see what I’m going to call the pencil ladder, a great way to keep a bunch of pencils to hand, so you can always grab a sharp one. I wonder if he has an organization tactic to know which are sharp and which need sharpening?

The maroon ones look a little like Mitsubishi Uni 9850 (Office Use), but the eraser color is wrong.
It could only be a KUM 2-hole sharpener

We can also see him using a fountain pen to solve the crossword in the newspaper, which exudes a level of confidence I will never have with that puzzle. It’s only a quick view of the fountain pen so I can’t tell the brand, but I would guess Parker, Waterman or Sheaffer - practical and reliable. And Diamine ink, surely.

Also there’s a chalkboard for sketching out puzzles, arranged throughout the living room. Almost like that of an eccentric mathematician (compliment, of course). Again, nothing to indicate the type of chalk, but I’m gonna have to assume it’s the fancy Japanese chalk that mathematicians stockpile. Unless there’s some also famous chalk from England or Wales (does chalk come from slate? I’m getting out of my depth here) that I am unfortunately clueless to.

Notebooks

We see a couple of notebooks in the series, but not a whole lot of detail on them so some guess work is required here.

Ludwig can be seen a few times in the series with a pocket notebook that he uses for notes or to design/solve some puzzles to calm himself down. It’s impossible to tell the brand - it’s pocket size, black leather-y cover, elastic closure band, grid layout. I like to think it’s a Leuchtturm though, seems fitting.

Creating some sudoku, but I have no idea what the top left puzzle is.
Designing a crossword, putting the different color inks to good use.

There’s also James’ notebook that’s fully encoded and fully wrapped in wrapping paper. Seems a bit of an odd choice, though I’m known to cover my notebooks in stickers, and really what’s the difference? It’s a unique look, and I could stare at the pages inside for days.

Looks like 2 layers of wrapping paper? Double duty.
It's all encoded, so who knows what it means. But still, so dope.

Pocket Pens

We spy the pens in Ludwig’s pocket in every episode, but it took until the finale before I could finally scry what these were1. They kind of looked like Pilot G-2s, or Zebra Sarasas - but neither quite fit the bill.

As you can see, the clip is the color of the ink, but the knock is transparent. Tough to place. It’s not until we get to the finale we see the grip section is also transparent (to help see the ink level!). It’s not a pen I’d seen before. An English exclusive?

Finally, a full shot of the pen. Had to wait until the finale for the denouement.

I started researching English ballpoint pens, and landed on this site, which has a picture of the pen in question, but it doesn’t mention the name. Some reverse image searching and we finally have a name - the BIC M10.

So the BIC M10 is a made in France BIC ballpoint that is the equivalent of the BIC Clic over here stateside. It’s a bog standard, cheap (less than $1 per), clicky biro sold and used in Europe (and New Zealand2), but they just don’t exist over here. So it’s probably dead obvious and banal to every Englishman watching the show, but for me it was exciting and exotic and cool. As such, I’ve got a 4-pack on the way from Germany so I can try out these bad boys.

Conclusion

So what can we tell about the stationery that Ludwig uses? I’d say he’s exacting in the stationery he chooses, and favors practicality over luxury. Pens and pencils and notebooks he can easily stock up on so when one meets its end he can easily replace it with the same.

I can’t wait for season 2, which will hopefully be filled with more exciting stationery! And mysteries to solve, too.

  1. One of my prouder achievements, of late. ↩

  2. I spied Detective Sims using one in Brokenwood. Once you know what you’re looking for, you see them everywhere! ↩