The Day of the Clown

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08 – The Day of the Clown
The Sarah Jane Adventures story
Cast
Starring
Others
  • Jem Brownlee – Dave Finn
  • Aaron Showsanya – Tony Warner
  • Bradley Walsh – The Pied Piper
  • Maria Jackson
  • Huw Higginson – Mr Cunningham
  • Elijah Baker – Steve Wallace
  • Haresh Chandra
  • Gita Chandra
  • Alan Ruscoe and Sean Palmer – Clowns
  • Professor Rivers
  • Jessica Mogridge – Young Sarah Jane
Production
Directed by
Series 2
Running time2 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast6 October 2008 (2008-10-06)
Last broadcast13 October 2008 (2008-10-13)
Chronology
← Preceded by
The Last Sontaran 		Followed by →
Secrets of the Stars
List of serials

The Day of the Clown is the second serial of the

Gita Chandra (Mina Anwar
), and they would stay for the rest of the series.

Plot

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

Outside references

After Sarah Jane reveals her fear of clowns, Luke reveals that he knows

court jesters, and numerous references are made to the legend of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.[2]

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.[5] It was made available for 14 days after first broadcast on the BBC iPlayer.[6] "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.[5]

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."[7]

Novelisation

The Day of the Clown
Author
ISBN
1-405-90510-7
Preceded byThe Last Sontaran 
Followed byThe 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.[8]

References

  1. ^ "The Sarah Jane Adventures series two". BBC. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  2. ^
    CBBC Channel
    .
  3. CBBC Channel
    .
  4. CBBC Channel
    .
  5. ^ a b "The Sarah Jane Adventures series two: Broadcast details". BBC. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  6. ^ "The Sarah Jane Adventures". BBC. 6 October 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  7. ^ McAllister, Matt (6 October 2008). "The Sarah Jane Adventures: Day of the Clown Parts 1 and 2 (series 2, episodes 3 and 4)". Dreamwatch. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
  8. ^ Day of the Clown ("Sarah Jane Adventures 8") [Paperback]. ASIN 1405905107.
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