The Day of the Clown

The Day of the Clown is the second serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was first broadcast in two weekly parts on the CBBC channel on 6 and 13 October 2008. The Day of the Clown introduces main character Rani Chandra (Anjli Mohindra) and her parents, Haresh (Ace Bhatti) and Gita Chandra (Mina Anwar), and they would stay for the rest of the series.

08 – The Day of the Clown
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
Cast
Starring Tommy Knight – Luke Smith Elisabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane Smith Daniel Anthony – Clyde Langer Anjli Mohindra – Rani Chandra Alexander Armstrong – Voice of Mr Smith
Others Jem Brownlee – Dave Finn Aaron Showsanya – Tony Warner Bradley Walsh – The Pied Piper Yasmin Paige – Voice of Maria Jackson Huw Higginson – Mr Cunningham Elijah Baker – Steve Wallace Ace Bhatti – Haresh Chandra Mina Anwar – Gita Chandra Alan Ruscoe and Sean Palmer – Clowns Floella Benjamin – Professor Rivers Jessica Mogridge – Young Sarah Jane
Production
Directed by	Michael Kerrigan
Written by	Phil Ford
Script editor	Gary Russell
Produced by	Nikki Smith
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Music by	Sam Watts
Production code	2.3 and 2.4
Series	Series 2
Running time	2 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	6 October 2008 (2008-10-06)
Last broadcast	13 October 2008 (2008-10-13)
Chronology
← Preceded by The Last Sontaran Followed by → Secrets of the Stars

Plot

Luke and Clyde meet Rani Chandra, a new pupil at school who has moved into Luke's street. Clyde and Rani are stalked by a clown who was spotted prior to the disappearance of Clyde's friend Dave Finn, one of several disappearances of children in the past two weeks. Sarah Jane and Clyde link the disappearances of the children to the Museum of the Circus, Clyde and two of the missing children having received tickets for it. Rani, who wants to become a journalist, begins her own investigation and makes the same connection to the Museum having found a ticket in a school book belonging to one of the missing children and having a ticket herself.

Sarah Jane and Clyde explore the Museum of the Circus and encounter Elijah Spellman. As Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani attempt to escape the building, Spellman reveals himself to have been the legendary Pied Piper of Hamelin and now Odd Bob the Clown seeking to take children away and feed off the fear of children going missing. When Rani's phone goes off, electromagnetic rays interfere with Spellman's energy. Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, and Rani escape the museum, and Rani accepts Sarah Jane's invitation to fight aliens.

The next morning, Rani looks out of her bedroom window and sees Odd Bob's balloon in her garden. When she gets to the school she tells Luke and Clyde, then a load of balloons fall down from the sky, all the school children pick them up (apart from Luke, Clyde and Rani) and fall under the spell from Odd Bob, behaving much like the Pied Piper story. However, Mr Smith uses the cellular phone system to interfere with Odd Bob's control and the children are released. Odd Bob suddenly kidnaps Luke, takes him to a place between worlds. Clyde uses humour to dissipate Sarah Jane's fear. Odd Bob requires fear to exist, and without it, he is in a weakened state and forced to return to the meteorite he used to come to Earth. Subsequently, the recently disappeared children return. Sarah Jane puts the meteorite into a box from which nothing can escape.

Continuity

• The First Doctor, John and Gillian first meet the Pied Piper in the comic Challenge of the Piper. This is also the first story to ever feature the Pied Piper in any Doctor Who media.
• Chrissie Jackson is revealed to be getting married and her daughter, Maria, is expected to return for the wedding.
• Haresh Chandra replaces Mr Blakeman as Headteacher of Park Vale High School, Blakeman having seemingly disappeared during Revenge of the Slitheen.
• Clyde reminds Luke of the disappearing children and the alien Kudlak seen in Warriors of Kudlak.
• Sarah Jane refers to her Aunt Lavinia, who appeared in K-9 and Company and was first mentioned in The Time Warrior. We learn more about Sarah Jane's upbringing with her Aunt Lavinia.
• One of the clowns shown on Sarah Jane's laptop is a promotional photo of Carmen Silvera as Clara the Clown from the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Celestial Toymaker.
• Professor Rivers of the Pharos Institute previously appeared in The Lost Boy.

Outside references

After Sarah Jane reveals her fear of clowns, Luke reveals that he knows Johnny Depp is also coulrophobic having read it in Heat. Spellman outlines the history of clowns citing Pharaohs' fools, harlequins, Native American clowns and Mediaeval court jesters, and numerous references are made to the legend of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

During a scene where Rani enquires about what is happening, Sarah Jane says she will offer Rani “a choice”. “Cross over the road, go back to your patents and the life you lived before you moved here. Nothing will have changed. Or you can come with me. If you do that, nothing will be the same again”, seemingly a reference to The Matrix.

Broadcast and reception

Broadcast

"Part One" was first broadcast on the CBBC Channel at 5.15 p.m. on Monday 6 October 2008 and was repeated as part of CBBC on BBC One at 4.35 p.m. on Monday 13 October 2008. It was made available for 14 days after first broadcast on the BBC iPlayer. "Part Two" was first broadcast on the CBBC Channel at 5.15 p.m. on Monday 13 October 2008 and was repeated on BBC One at 4.35 p.m. on Monday 20 October 2008.

Critical reception

Writing for Dreamwatch, Matt McAllister asserts that there may not be "quite enough here to sustain a double-episode worth" but observes that there are "memorable scenes, including an ingenious final showdown." He states that Walsh is "appropriately sinister...as Odd Bob the Clown" and describes Rani as "likeable", noting that having her father as the new Headteacher is "a nice little twist". McAllister thinks that the story "owes a big debt to Stephen King's It" (1986) and that it has shades of Torchwood episode "From Out of the Rain" and Doctor Who serial The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. In conclusion, McAllister notes that "[t]his may not be earth-shattering kids' TV, but it’s good creepy fun nonetheless."

Novelisation

The Day of the Clown

Author	Phil Ford
Series	The Sarah Jane Adventures #8
Published	6 November 2008 Penguin Books
Pages	128
ISBN	1-405-90510-7
Preceded by	The Last Sontaran
Followed by	The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

This was the eighth of eleven Sarah Jane Adventures serials to be adapted as a novel. Written by Phil Ford, the book was first published in paperback on 6 November 2008.

External links

• The official BBC The Sarah Jane Adventures website
• Press Pack information regarding The Day of the Clown at the BBC Press Office website
• "The Day of the Clown" at IMDb
• Day of the Clown title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database