Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, to visit Downton Abbey set
The 33-year-old royal to watch a scene filmed at Ealing Studios on March 12
The Duchess of Cambridge, or the royal most commonly called Kate Middleton, is heading to the set of the hit period drama Downton Abbey next week, the palace reported Thursday.
"On Thursday 12th March, The Duchess of Cambridge will visit the set of the award-winning Downton Abbey," announced a message on the official Kensington Palace Twitter account.
On Thursday 12th March, The Duchess of Cambridge will visit the set of the award-winning <a href="https://twitter.com/DowntonAbbey">@DowntonAbbey</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/EalingStudios">@EalingStudios</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DuchessAtDownton?src=hash">#DuchessAtDownton</a>
—@KensingtonRoyalThe Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning period piece, which follows the lives and loves of the Crawley family and its servants in their stately Georgian country house, is filmed in the Ealing Studios in west London.
The 33-year-old pregnant wife of Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, will not be trekking out to Highclere Castle in Hampshire where the show's gorgeous exteriors are shot.
Kate will reportedly also meet the show's creator Julian Fellowes and take a tour of the facilities. It is not yet clear which cast members will be invited to participate in the royal visit.
"It's such exciting news," exclaimed a Tweet from ITV's official Downton Abbey account, "we really will be having the #DuchessAtDownton!"
The Duchess's visit comes during an interesting time for fans of the wildly popular drama.
Speculation Downton is nearly done
Downton's fifth season just wrapped for North American television audiences and comments from actress Maggie Smith have helped fuel speculation that the show will end with season six.
The legendary stage and screen actress, who plays the haughty and formidable matriarch, the dowager Countess of Grantham, told the Sunday Times newspaper that "I can't see how (Downton) could go on."
Many readers took the comments to mean that Downton Abbey was nearing its end, and that Smith was ready to quit the show. But publicists were quick to counter saying the 80-year-old actress was misinterpreted.
The announcement of Kate's high-profile appearance comes just as Prince William completes an historic royal tour of Japan and China.
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While in Japan, the Duke of Cambridge paid his respects at a shrine in Japan's tsunami-ravaged northeast.
In China, he talked football and illegal wildlife trading with the Chinese president before visiting some of the country's most famous sites.