Ludwig ending explained: Was John caught out by police and what happened to James?

David Mitchell's Ludwig is nearing its conclusion on BBC One, but its finale is already up on BBC iPlayer. Viewers will have seen the comedic actor pose as his twin brother DCI James Taylor in order to investigate his disappearance and why he suddenly left his family.

But John 'Ludwig' Taylor went from writing puzzles to solving murders and turned out to be a pretty good detective. As the comedy drama enters its sixth episode, we learned that John was investigating possible police corruption and a potential cover-up.

James' wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) is also on the case and a phone call could see her in a lot of trouble.

Viewers will be wondering how did plots play out in the finale, namely was John uncovered as a fraud and did he uncover what happened to James?

Did police find out John's real identity?

After posing as James and solving murders, John confessed he wasn't actually his twin brother to Russell. Lucy had been arrested in connection with Holly's murder and the police IT technician claimed she and James were having an affair.

Simon revealed that he had overheard Holly speaking with John - who she believed to be James - talking about their affair. This suddenly gave Lucy an apparent motive to kill Holly and Russell pressed John on this claim during a police interview.

John, who was lost for words, admitted he wasn't James and confessed he had been missing. John was kept overnight in a police cell as the team investigated Holly's death.

Lucy was later cleared of killing Holly, John was made to sign James's resignation forms in order to allow everyone to go on believing he had worked there up to that point and clear John's own crimes.

John was however brought back into the police as a “lateral thinking consultant” for the Cambridgeshire police after impressing the force with his crime solving skills.

What happened to Holly and Lucy?

Holly was killed by Adam after he realised she was taking far more than the 50/50 split of their profits that she had promised him. Holly acquired and sold information from inside the police force and tipped off people under investigation and extorted money from police officers.

Holly was also aware that John wasn't really James and wanted to blackmail Lucy with this information. Lucy had simply walked into Holly's flat at the wrong time after she claimed to have information about James' whereabouts.

Lucy was cleared of Holly's murder when it emerged 'boyfriend' Adam had fatally stabbed Holly in her flat. He slipped out of her home via the kitchen island and swapping over the murder weapon with Lucy's knife.

What happened to James?

James is revealed to be alive and well, but there's a long backstory.

Holly had sold information to former journalist, blogger and conspiracy theorist Roger Sinclair and it is unknown what information she sold, and all of Sinclair's articles had been scrubbed from the internet.

Following Sinclair's death, James was first on the scene and he and his partner Matt were taken off the case. A new team covered up his death and James strongly believed this was a professional hit on Sinclair's life.

James wanted to continue investigating the death and Carol told him to stop. Matt left his job and went into hiding while James disappeared and told Lucy to hand in his resignation.

John received a voicemail from his twin brother revealing he never guessed John would have impersonated him and he only disappeared so he can investigate Sinclair's death and escape his unhappy home life.

James claimed he was like their absent father and called himself the bowerbird, something James would never do. John realised that James was lying and led the team to a bird book and later a storage unit full of Sinclair's items.

John believed one of the conspiracy theories Sinclair had been researching must have been true, and important enough to kill him over. As the trio investigated the case, James watched on from the darkness.