The Day of the Clown (TV story)

The Day of the Clown was the second story of the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It introduced Rani, Gita and Haresh Chandra as the new occupants of the Jacksons' home on Bannerman Road. It established that Sarah had been afraid of clowns since childhood and thereby centred the story on the nature of fear itself.

The story also contained some important character beats that were carried on throughout the series.

Hanging over Rani's introduction was the fact that Luke keenly missed Maria, and that Rani knew that she was a kind of "replacement" for Jackson. Additionally, the hostility between Haresh Chandra and Clyde Langer began here, as did the notion that Rani was a budding journalist who needed professional mentoring by Sarah Jane. All of these themes would continue for the rest of the series, and were even prominent as late as the final story.

Behind the scenes, this story was notable for being one of only two episodes to credit both Paige and Mohindra, because Maria's voice is heard in part one. This was also a rare example of an episode that credits Paige but not Joseph Millson; Maria's father, almost ubiquitous in Maria episodes, didn't appear here.

Synopsis
Rani Chandra is the new girl on Bannerman Road. She is haunted by a sinister clown. Does it have anything to do with local children who have gone missing? When Clyde's friend Dave disappears, the trail leads to a strange circus museum and the legend of the Pied Piper.

Part 1
A new family is moving into number 36 Bannerman Road, formerly occupied by Alan and Maria Jackson. Luke Smith still misses Maria, even though she's keeping in touch by e-mail. His mum Sarah Jane sympathises and reminds him Maria will visit England soon. She'll be at her mother's wedding. Yet, as Luke notes, it's not the same.

There's a new girl at Park Vale School, the boys' comprehensive: clever and inquisitive Rani, who wants to be a journalist. Clyde is smitten — even forgetting his odd sightings of clowns, always just out of the corner of his eye — until he notices there's also a new head at the school: humourless Mr Chandra. He is determined to improve the students' scores and put an end to the recent rash of child disappearances. He is not impressed by Clyde, the class clown. Clyde doesn't make it to lunch before receiving a summons to the new head's office.

While he is waiting by Mr Chandra's office, Clyde has another clown sighting. He tries to laugh it off, but he is shaken when his friend Dave ducks into a small art closet for supplies and doesn't come out. The art closet is empty; Dave has vanished into thin air.

Sarah Jane brings the new family tea and biscuits as a welcoming gift, but when Gita Chandra's back is turned, she performs a scan to check that no alien "residue" remains from the Jacksons' previous inhabitancy, because of Clyde's earlier remark. Only Gita Chandra is there — her husband and daughter are at school, she explains — so the two women share tea. Gita describes her family. She is thrilled to learn that Sarah Jane is an investigative journalist. Her daughter Rani wants to become one herself.

Clyde and Luke are walking home from school when Clyde sees another clown. Though Luke doesn't see anything, the boys give chase. They encounter only Rani, who has also been seeing clowns. Rani wonders if there is an extraordinary or supernatural explanation of the disappearances, The three are deep in discussion when they reach Bannerman Road and find Rani's dad is Mr Chandra. He is not pleased to see his daughter with Clyde, whom he has pegged as a troublemaker. On the other hand, he is delighted she has made friends with Luke, one of Park Vale's most gifted students. Luke helps Rani unpack. In her room, they continue their talk of the missing children. The mention of clowns jogs Rani's memory: She remembers taking a ticket to see a circus museum. Rani decides to investigate. Luke feels he has no choice but to follow.

Clyde and Sarah Jane have independently discovered the same thing. All the missing children received tickets to the same circus museum, and only children with tickets were seeing the clowns. They elect to visit the clown museum as well. Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus is run by the strange Elijah Spellman. He shows them around and leads them to a room filled with clown mannequins. Clyde spots a picture on the wall: an old watercolour painting of a man wearing red, blue and yellow — just like the mysterious ghost clowns he'd been seeing. Sarah Jane explains that the figure depicted is the Pied Piper, a legendary figure of European folklore who stole the children from Hamelin. Elijah Spellman agrees. He reveals that he is the Pied Piper and the mysterious clown. He has come for more children. Nor will he tolerate discovery — with a word, he vanishes and the clown mannequins come to life and threaten Sarah Jane and Clyde.

They run to the entrance, where they meet Luke and Rani and find that while Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick is effective against the clown mannequins, the Pied Piper has trapped them in the building...

Part 2
Spellman frightens Sarah Jane Smith with insights on her childhood whilst Clyde, Luke and Rani try to escape from the museum. Luke and Clyde get outside whilst Sarah Jane remains terrified inside the circus. Rani's phone rings and she is confronted by a dilemma as Mum appears on the screen. While the phone rings, Spellman freezes. After a few seconds, Rani declines the call and runs out of the circus. Sarah Jane follows and the gang get inside Sarah Jane's car to drive back to Bannerman Road.

Once there, Sarah Jane gives Rani a choice: live across the road and not interfere with her life, or go with Sarah Jane and a whole world of adventure. Rani chooses to join Sarah Jane and says she will explain to her mum that she is completing some work experience with her.

Sarah Jane, Rani, Luke and Clyde go into Sarah Jane's house. Rani is amazed at the alien gear in Sarah Jane's attic, particularly alien supercomputer Mr Smith. The new team quickly determines the history of the Pied Piper is traceable to a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1283. The extrasolar meteorite originated in the Jeggorabax Cluster, a region of space known to house entities that feed off of emotions. To confirm this, Mr Smith will need a sample of the meteorite. Fortunately, it is on loan from the University of Munich to the Pharos Institute.

Luke confronts Sarah Jane about her fear of clowns. Why should his mum, who has seen some of the strangest things in the universe, be frightened of clowns? Sarah Jane explains that she was frightened of a clown marionette owned by her Aunt Lavinia when she was a child. It was one of the few times she missed having parents she could call on for comfort.

Sarah Jane visits the Pharos Institute and borrows a piece of meteorite to give to Mr Smith. Whilst she is there, Spellman appears and tells Sarah Jane that families will perish at the deaths of a nation of children.

Meanwhile, at Park Vale School, a host of red balloons fall from the sky. As the children grab them, they seem to lose free will, and mindlessly walk out of school towards Spellman's museum. Sarah Jane remembers when Rani's phone rang earlier, Spellman froze. She gets Mr Smith to ring all the childrens' mobile numbers, breaking the spell, but Spellman kidnaps Luke and imprisons him in the hall of mirrors. Currently, he is sleeping with the other missing children whom Odd Bob has caught. Sarah Jane demands the children be brought back, but Spellman correctly deduces she is still afraid of him and says he has been responsible for her lifelong fear of clowns. Spellman and she face off, unaware that Rani and Clyde have entered the building.

Clyde faces Spellman unafraid. He begins to tell jokes. The humour loosens the grip that fear has on Sarah Jane, which in turn weakens Spellman, who feeds on fear. Spellman weakens and Sarah Jane forces him back into the fragment of the meteorite, which she puts into an alien box which nothing can escape from.

Rani is a little shaken by her odd experiences, but vows to help Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde in their adventures.

Cast

 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Maria Jackson - Yasmin Paige (Voice)
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Clyde Langer - Daniel Anthony
 * Rani Chandra - Anjli Mohindra
 * Voice of Mr Smith - Alexander Armstrong
 * Gita Chandra - Mina Anwar
 * Haresh Chandra - Ace Bhatti
 * The Pied Piper / Elijah Spellman / Odd Bob the Clown - Bradley Walsh
 * Dave Finn - Jem Brownlee
 * Tony Warner - Aaron Shosanya
 * Mr Cunningham - Huw Higginson
 * Steve Wallace - Elijah Baker
 * Professor Rivers - Floella Benjamin
 * Young Sarah Jane - Jessica Mogridge
 * Clowns - Alan Ruscoe and Sean Palmer

Individuals

 * Mr Chandra is attracted to a woman named Dawn French.

Cultural references from the real world

 * Steve Wallace refers to the Pied Piper (while in his Odd Bob the Clown guise) as "", alluding to the recurring clown character from The Simpsons.

Foods and beverages

 * Sarah Jane Smith and Gita Chandra share tea and biscuits.

Story notes

 * Luke claims they have saved the world twelve times. It's unclear if he's approximating or being literal. Even if one were to throw in AUDIO: The Thirteenth Stone and The Glittering Storm — and even TV: Journey's End — that only amounts to ten world-saving operations since Luke met Sarah. So either Luke is approximating, or there are a couple of missing adventures.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 514,000 viewers
 * Episode 2 - 443,000 viewers

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * Script editor Gary Russell appears to drop the ball here, allowing Clyde Langer to claim that the house over the road from 13 Bannerman Road is 36 Bannerman Road. Not only is that illogical according to typical English numbering, but it contradicts the Invasion of the Bane-established fact that the Jacksons live at 12 Bannerman Road.

Continuity

 * One of the clowns shown on Sarah Jane's laptop is Clara the Clown from The Celestial Toymaker
 * The First Doctor, John and Gillian encountered the Pied Piper in COMIC: Challenge of the Piper. They were present for the story told about him near the end of episode 1, and uncovered him as a practitioner of science, rather than of hypnotic flute playing.
 * The Nestene Consciousness also used animated mannequins as attack drones. (TV: Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, Rose)
 * On Sarah Jane's staircase there are several newspaper cuttings, appearing to have been written by Sarah Jane. One of them is about events at Deffry Vale High School. (TV: School Reunion)
 * Mr Chandra refers to the "mysteriously vanished" Greg Blakeman, the previous head teacher, who was actually killed by the Slitheen and used as a skin suit by their leader. (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen)
 * Clyde refers to the Kudlak. (TV: Warriors of Kudlak)
 * In part one, Rani convinces Luke to go to Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus by spouting a "core Doctor Who value": "the supernatural is only science we don't know yet". This reveals her to both the audience and Luke as someone who shares the worldview that Sarah Jane got by travelling with the Doctor.

Home video releases
This story, along with the rest of series 2, was released on DVD on the 9th November 2009 (UK) and 10th November 2009 (North America).