The Crown films Prince William actor Ed McVey seeing Meg Bellamy’s Kate Middleton at St Andrews

The Crown’s Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy have been pictured filming on the set of the sixth and last series of the popular Netflix drama.

Pictures show the actors, playing Prince William and Kate Middleton, respectively, seeing one another during a run at St Andrews before Ed takes a second glance at his co-star.

It is thought the scenes are portraying the Prince and Princess of Wales’ first glimpse of one another while students at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, where they met and fell in love.

They became friends in their first year before romance blossomed after William saw ‘hot’ Kate strut down a charity fashion show catwalk in a sheer dress. They graduated in 2005 and William proposed five years later. 

Fans are eagerly awaiting the release of The Crown’s final series later this year, with the show already courting controversy as it plans to depict the tragic death of Princess Diana.

Imelda Staunton will reprise her role as Queen Elizabeth II, with Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Prince Philip.

Elizabeth Debicki will once again appear as Princess Diana in the build-up to her death, while Dominic West plays Prince Charles. 

Theatrically trained Ed, 22, will play Prince William throughout his late teens and early twenties – when he relocated to the prestigious university in Fife after completing his studies at Eton College in 2001.

He was dressed in a navy hoodie, black joggers and stylish white trainers for the jogging scenes today, before filming alongside Dominic in a smart navy jumper and denim jeans.

Ed will star alongside Meg Bellamy, who has been cast as future Princess Of Wales Kate Middleton.

While Meg has no official acting credits to her name, Ed has significantly more experience; he graduated from Drama Centre London in 2021 and was an understudy in the play Camp Siegfried, which was shown at London’s Old Vic.

Meg, 19, has never acted before and applied for the role after earning an A* for drama in her A-levels at St Crispin’s School in Wokingham, Berkshire.

She had previously only taken part in school productions and had a part-time job at Legoland in nearby Windsor.

Series five of The Crown was subject to plenty of criticism due to the touchy topic of Charles and his marriage to Diana, following its release on Netflix in November.

Many argued that filming scenes leading up to Princess Diana’s death in Paris were insensitive – as well as the series going ahead with its launch not long after the Queen’s death in September last year.

Focusing heavily on the fallout between Princess Diana, played by Debicki and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) as portrayed by West, the new series showcased a number of low points for the royals.

Among them were Charles and Diana’s marriage breakdown, the late royal’s controversial Panorama interview and the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call between the King and Queen Consort, then Camilla. 

Acting royalty Dame Judi Dench, who is close to King Charles and Camilla, has accused the programme of being ‘crude and hurtful’.

Dame Judi, 87, who has played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, told The Times the series risked damaging the monarchy. The Oscar-winning actress blamed it for ‘crude sensationalism’ and blurring fact and fiction.

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major criticised a scene in a previous season which shows him having a conversation with then Prince Charles about the possibility of the Queen abdicating as ‘malicious nonsense’.

However, The Crown star Gillian Anderson, who played Margaret Thatcher in series four, hit back at the comments – and argues that the series could have been far more damaging.

Speaking to The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden, Gillian said: ‘There’s a lot of researchers involved, and a lot of people checking and double-checking and triple-checking. 

‘There’s a lot that has not been written about that could be written about. And if you knew the difference in those, you’d see there is a great deal of kindness and restraint.’

She added: ‘At the end of the day, there are incredibly compassionate and well-rounded takes on human beings. 

‘And what you’re left with is properly, maturely drawn, complex characters. And there’s a lot that’s in there that one has to say, ‘If you didn’t do it, we wouldn’t be writing about it’.’