Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures addresses ‘missing’ iPlayer episodes

What's happening with 'The Curse of Clyde Langer'?

By Joe Anderton

5 Dec 2022

The BBC gave fans an early Christmas present last week when it revealed all the episodes of Doctor Who's CBBC spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures were available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

But as it turns out, not all of them were actually there.

The penultimate two-parter, series 5's 'The Curse of Clyde Langer', is missing from the streaming service, and fans were unsure if it was intentional or an error.

russell t davies' sarah jane adventures farewell story

BBC

A BBC spokesperson has clarified the situation to Digital Spy, with a statement reading: "We are making a couple of minor edits for factual accuracy and we hope to make it available soon."

The episodes follow Clyde and an ancient artefact, which causes people to get irrationally angry at the mention of his name, and he must figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the spin-off, with frequent writer Phil Ford explaining earlier this year why he thinks the show was so special.

"We never really pulled our punches so much on The Sarah Jane Adventures, and I think that’s one of the things that made it such a big hit with kids and with their parents as well," he said.

daniel anthony as clyde langer in the sarah jane adventures, looking down at his hand

BBC

"In 'Eye of the Gorgon', a lot of it is about a woman who has dementia. I remember, very early on, Russell (T Davies) talking about the responsibility that we had, because there would be kids who would have grandparents who were going through the same thing. We didn’t want to magically take that away from her through the sci-fi story.

"We didn’t want to tell kids, 'It’s okay, because your grandparents who are suffering awful conditions could be magically made well again'. Telling mature stories and finding the truth was something that we tried to do all the way through."

The show ran until 2011, ending early due to the passing of Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane. The cast reunited virtually in 2020 for a farewell story, while 2023 will see the debut of a trio of audio dramas focusing on the character of Rani Chandra.

The Sarah Jane Adventures is available to watch (almost) in full on BBC iPlayer.