Best comedy accolade as series 2 is in production

David Mitchell’s detective series Ludwig was named best comedy at the International Emmy Awards in New York last night.

Mitchell’s co-star in the series – Anna Maxwell Martin – took home best performance by an actress  for her role in the ITV true crime miniseries Until I Kill You.

The evening was a good night for the UK, which scooped seven of the 16 categories – including best drama, which went to Jilly Cooper’s Rivals. 

Ludwig’s award was collected by Kenton Allen, chief executive of programme-makers Big Talk Studios, who used his speech to thank the BBC.

He added:  The BBC, as you may have noticed, is under a little bit of attention at the moment because of some of its news reporting, and there's a certain US president who was threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars, and the billion dollars is about a third of the BBC's budget, which is paid for by the likes of you and me, just normal people. 

‘So if anybody knows the current president of the USA could they suggest to him, he doesn't sue the BBC for a billion dollars. Otherwise, we won't be able to make lovely shows like Ludwig.’

Series two of Ludwig, written by Mark Brotherhood,  is currently in production.

The 53rd International Emmy Awards were hosted by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and the other shows up for best comedy were Chicken Nugget from South Korea, French show Iris and Mexico’s They Came at Night.

Published: 25 Nov 2025