'Homeland' just like Salt River

"Watching Homeland Season 4. It says 'Kabul, Afghanistan' but it looks more like Salt River, Cape Town."

This was a Facebook update by Capetonian Christina Primke after she had watched the first episode of the latest season of the American political thriller on DStv. She was probably right.

A double bill of the first two episodes was broadcast on Tuesday at 1am for DStv Explora viewers. Mere mortals will see it tonight on M-Net.

The Emmy Award-winning show, starring Claire Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison, has been shooting in Cape Town for the past couple of months.

Those who stayed up earlier this week will probably have been able to spot the Cape Town surroundings, which, for the purposes of the show, double up as Afghanistan.

Many Capetonians have accidentally walked onto the show's sets at various locations in and around the city.

Others have spotted the stars of the show at grocery stores and shopping malls. Danes was spotted doing yoga at a Green Point studio.

Primke innocently invaded a set a few weeks ago as she walked through Cape Town railway station.

"I thought, 'It kind of looks like the Middle East, and what are all these people doing standing and waiting with old school suitcases in random spots?" she recalled.

She soon realised that she had walked onto a film set and then heard a production assistant shouting to the cast and crew that the cameras were rolling. Then Danes walked onto the set.

"It was bizarre. I literally walked through the scene shot," Primke says.

Helene Turvey, of Showtime, said that crew and cast were still busy with filming. "They love shooting in Cape Town."

Homeland Season 4 began shooting in Cape Town in mid-June. Filming is expected to end next month.

Ordinary DStv and M-Net terrestrial subscribers can catch a special double bill in which the first two episodes of the new season premiere: on DStv channel 101 and M-Net terrestrial tonight at 9.30pm.