The Day of the Clown (TV story): Difference between revisions

|featuring3    = Professor Rivers

'''''The Day of the Clown''''' was the second serial of [[Series 2 (SJA)|series 2]] of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]''. It was written by [[Phil Ford]], directed by [[Michael Kerrigan]] and featured [[Elisabeth Sladen]] as [[Sarah Jane Smith]], [[Tommy Knight]] as [[Luke Smith]], [[Daniel Anthony]] as [[Clyde Langer]] and [[Alexander Armstrong]] as [[Mr Smith]] and introduced [[Anjli Mohindra]] as [[Rani Chandra]].

It introduced Rani, [[Gita Chandra|Gita]] and [[Haresh Chandra]] as the new occupants of [[36 Bannerman Road|the Jacksons' home]] on [[Bannerman Road]]. It established that Sarah had been [[coulrophobia|afraid of clowns]] since childhood and thereby centred the story on the nature of fear itself.

Hanging over Rani's introduction was the fact that [[Luke Smith|Luke]] keenly missed [[Maria Jackson|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. All of these themes would continue for the rest of the series, and were even prominent as late as the [[The Man Who Never Was|final story]].

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