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A Sarah Jane Adventure
Posted on Monday 03 November 2008
There’s a house on a road in West London where Sarah Jane Smith lives. In the attic is an alien super-computer called Mr Smith and a genius boy built by an alien race. Welcome to the world of children’s TV, Russell T Davies style. Sarah Herman packed up her sonic lipstick and headed down to Cardiff to see what all the fuss is about.
The road sign says we’re standing on Bannerman Road, Ealing, only something’s not quite right. We’re not in Ealing, at all. We’re in Penarth, Cardiff. Number 13 – a large, red brick house – leers above us on the pebbled driveway, towering over its neighbours. Parked neatly outside the front room’s window is an emerald green Nissan Figaro, keys in the ignition, a LEGO man dangling from the keychain. A hushed silence descends on the street as the cast and crew of The Sarah Jane Adventures prepare for another take.
They’re busy filming scenes for the first two-parter of the show’s anticipated second series, which, by the time you read this, will have started airing on CBBC. The first batch of alien-annihilating antics beamed down back in 2007, with a 60-minute New Year’s special followed by a full 10-episode series in the autumn. The show, aimed primarily at a younger audience than its big brother, Doctor Who, raked in record-breaking audiences for a BBC kids’ programme, and with a DVD box set out in November it’s certainly not going the same way as Sarah Jane’s disappointing 1981 pilot, K-9 and Company.
... Fan favourites
In fact, part of the programme’s appeal lies in its relationship with Doctor Who and the rich televisual history it draws on. Fan favourite aliens such as the Sontarans and the Slitheen make the show a must-see event on weekly TV schedules for most Who obsessives. “A lot of adult fans write to us, and really enjoy the programme,” Sladen says. “They’re either old Doctor Who fans or they’ve been brought to it by their children.”
... The series one boxset of The Sarah Jane Adventures is available to buy on 10 November.
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series two episodes is currently airing on Mondays on CBBC and BBC One.
