Dame Maggie Smith to appear on “The Graham Norton Show”

The illustrious Dame Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall) will make her first British chat show appearance in over 42 years later this month, when she appears on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show.

Smith, along with co-star Alex Jennings, will be promoting her latest film, The Lady in the Van, which is an adaptation of the stage play by Alan Bennett. You can check out the trailer for the film, which also stars fellow Potter alumni Jim Broadbent (Professor Horace Slughorn) and Frances de la Tour (Madam Olympe Maxime), below.

Other guests scheduled to appear on the show include pop star Justin Bieber, Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, and Cindy Crawford.

Smith, who turns 81 in December, has had a career spanning over 60 years in film, TV, and theater. Known for her roles in Laurence Olivier’s first National Theatre company in the 1960s, her last stage appearance was in 2007 in Edward Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque at the Haymarket Theatre. More recently, she has been gracing our TV screens as the formidable Dowager Countess of Grantham in the Emmy Award-winning series Downton Abbey, which is currently airing its sixth and final season in the UK.

The episode of The Graham Norton Show will air on October 30, while The Lady in the Van will be released in UK theaters on November 13. Are you excited for Smith’s rare chat show appearance? Let us know your thoughts!