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 . 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 . Plot . Part 1 . A group of boys are playing football when the ball goes out of the pitch . A child goes over to fetch the ball but sees a clown , who is , in fact Elijah Spellman . A few seconds later , the child is scared by the clown and disappears , never to be seen again . 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 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 clown s , 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 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 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 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 and Clyde . They run to the entrance , where they meet Luke and Rani and find that while Sarah ' 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 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 ' s car to drive back to Bannerman Road . Once there , Sarah gives Rani a choice : live across the road and not interfere with her life , or go with Sarah and a whole world of adventure . Rani chooses to join Sarah and says she will explain to her mum that she is completing some work experience with her . Sarah , Rani , Luke and Clyde go into Sarah ' s house . Rani is amazed at the alien gear in Sarah ' 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 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 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 visits the Pharos Institute and borrows a piece of meteorite to give to Mr Smith . Whilst she is there , Spellman appears and tells Sarah 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 remembers when Rani ' s phone rang earlier , Spellman froze . She gets Mr Smith to ring all the children ' s 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 and after a while , " they just fade away " . Sarah demands the children be brought back , but Spellman correctly deduce s 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 , which in turn weakens Spellman , who feeds on fear . Spellman weakens and Sarah 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 , Luke and Clyde in their adventures . Story notes . Filming locations . " to be added " 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 ) .