'The Day of the Clown' (Part 1) by Phil Ford

While playing football with his mates, schoolboy Tony Warner accidentally kicks the ball into the woods nearby; but when Tony heads into the trees to retrieve the missing ball, an evil-looking clown appears out of nowhere and attacks him… The following morning, at Number 13, Bannerman Road, Luke receives an email from Maria, now settling into her new life living in Washington with her father; meanwhile, Sarah’s interest is piqued by a local newspaper story, which reports the third mysterious disappearance of a child in the area. Just then Clyde bursts in with news that a new family is moving in to Maria’s old house across the street; concerned, Sarah reminds Clyde and her foster son to keep quiet about their secret life fighting aliens. Clyde and Luke head for Park Vale School, where they literally bump into a new addition to their class, a pretty girl named Rani. As the two boys show her to their classroom, Rani catches a glimpse of a sinister clown watching her from further down the hallway, who then vanishes into thin air…As class starts and the teacher, Mr Cunningham, voices his expectations for Luke in the National School Science Challenge, the new headmaster, Mr Chandra, makes an appearance; informing his pupils that he will be introducing a stricter regime than his predecessor, the new head reminds them of the recent disappearances, and instructs everyone to be extra vigilant for anything suspicious. However, Rani is distracted by the sight of the malevolent clown watching her from outside the window, before he vanishes once more…Armed with tea and cakes, Sarah pays a visit to her new neighbour, Gita, and takes the opportunity to use her wrist scanner to surreptitiously check that Maria didn’t leave anything untoward behind. To Sarah’s dismay, she learns that Gita’s daughter, Rani, wants to become a reporter, and may look to her for tips... During break, Rani tells Luke of her interest in the weird, while Clyde gets into trouble after accidentally hitting Mr Chandra on the head with a football. Waiting outside the headmaster’s office, Clyde chats to his friend Dave, who is on the way to get art supplies from a nearby storeroom; but after seeing a clown reflected in the glass of a display cabinet, Clyde is shocked to discover that Dave has disappeared into thin air. Hearing a sinister chuckle, Clyde turns to see the clown further down the hall, before the figure disappears with the wave of a colourful, oversized hanky. Hearing the clown inside the boys’ toilets, Clyde sees the evil creature’s reflection in the mirror – even though the room itself is empty! Reaching out through the glass, the clown offers Clyde a red balloon… and then disappears when the headmaster suddenly appears, looking for Clyde. Although Mr Chandra refuses to believe Clyde’s story of the clown, Luke takes his claims more seriously. As the two boys set off for Bannerman Road to tell Sarah, Clyde sees the horrible clown again across the street; Luke doesn’t see him, but still follows his friend in chasing after the brightly-coloured creature; however, the clown is always one step ahead of them, and takes great glee in leading the boys a merry dance before finally vanishing, leaving behind him a red balloon. Before Clyde can touch the balloon he is stopped by the arrival of Rani, and as the trio look on, the clown’s face appears on the balloon’s surface just before it bursts. After confiding to her new friends that she too has seen the clown, Rani has a further surprise: her father is the new headmaster! As Luke and Clyde introduce themselves to Rani’s parents, Sarah arrives and leads the boys back to her attic headquarters. Sarah takes Clyde’s story of the evil clown seriously, although she is unsure if he is an alien. Back at the Chandra’s, Rani looks through Dave’s schoolbooks, which her father took in order to pass onto the police; Rani’s shock at finding the pages covered in sketches of the clown quickly turns to terror when she sees the evil figure again: first outside the kitchen window – and then standing right next to her! But at that moment Gita re-enters the room, causing the evil creature to vanish into thin air… Talking to Dave’s friends at the football field, Sarah and Clyde learn that a mysterious clown was recently seen at the train station handing out tickets for ‘Spellman’s Magical Museum of the Circus’; Clyde is immediately reminded of an identical ticket his mum gave him... Luke visits Rani and sees the books filled with drawings of the clown. When Luke finds a ticket for the museum inside one of the books, Rani recalls one that she was given, and immediately deduces that the tickets allow their owners to see the clown; she then rushes off for the museum, dragging Luke along behind her. Sarah and Clyde arrive at the museum, which they find full of old posters, photos, stuffed circus animals and clown mannequins; Clyde finds it all amusing, but Sarah is unnerved, as she harbours a dislike of clowns. Just then a costumed Ringmaster appears – Elijah Spellman himself. Sarah immediately begins questioning him about clowns, but Spellman’s response is to lead his guests to a room devoted to the gaudily-costumed characters, where Clyde finds an old painting of the clown he saw: a picture of the legendary Pied Piper of Hamlin. Clyde dismisses the image as a fairy tale, but Sarah remarks that many legends have a basis in fact… Luke and Rani arrive at the museum, joining Sarah and Clyde just as the surrounding clown mannequins jerk into life and close in on them. Realising that Spellman is controlling them telekinetically, Sarah uses her sonic lipstick to deactivate the automatons and then leads her friends make for the exit, only to find the door has been sealed shut. Spellman appears out of thin air and reveals that he is the real Pied Piper, and has been stealing children for seven centuries. Before Sarah and her friends’ startled eyes, Spellman transforms into his true form of the Pied Piper and then into Odd Bob the clown, gloating evilly that he is everything they have ever feared – and that he will feed on them…

Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Thomas Knight (Luke Smith), Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer), Alexander Armstrong (Mr Smith [Voice]), Yasmin Page (Maria Jackson [Voice]) Jem Brownlee (Dave Finn), Aaron Shosanya (Tony Warner), Bradley Walsh (Odd Bob / Elijah Spellman / The Pied Piper), Anjli Mohindra (Rani Chandra), Huw Higginson (Mr Cunningham), Elijah Baker (Steve Wallace), Ace Bhatti (Haresh Chandra), Mina Anwar (Gita Chandra), Alan Ruscoe (Clown), Sean Palmer (Clown)

Directed by Michael Kerrigan
Produced by Matthew Bouch
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX (CBBC):
6th October 2008 @ 5.15pm
13th October 2008 @ 4.35pm on BBC 1

Notes:
*Featuring Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Clyde and Mr Smith, and introducing Rani