‘Call the Midwife’ star joins ‘The Crown’ cast as Camilla Parker Bowles

It’s been confirmed who’ll play Camilla Parker Bowles in the next season of The Crown.

Netflix’s award-winning period drama tells the story of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

The third season is currently filming and will see the show’s entire cast being replaced by older actors as the story moves further into the second half of the 20th Century.

Joining The Durrells star Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles will be Emerald Fennell as Charles’ future wife Camilla.

Best known as Patsy in Call the Midwife from 2013 to 2017, the British actress also played Ada Lovelace in Victoria and appeared in The Danish Girl, Anna Karenina, The Lady Vanishes and Pan.

Camilla Rosemary Shand, as she was then called, first met Charles in 1971, but when Charles departed to complete his service with the Royal Navy overseas in 1973, she married Andrew Parker Bowles in his absence.

Emerald Fennell commented: “I’m absolutely over the moon, and completely terrified, to be joining so many hugely talented people on The Crown. I absolutely love Camilla…”

She joked: “[I] am very grateful that my teenage years have well prepared me for playing a chain-smoking serial snogger with a pudding bowl haircut.”

Rumours began circulating last month that The X-Files star Gillian Anderson may also be joining the cast as divisive former Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher.

The new season of Call the Midwife has just finished filming.

The Crown is available to buy on DVD on Amazon here.

Season 3 is expected to premiere on Netflix around the world in early 2019.