Sir Richard Blake

Sir Richard Oswald Blake is a non-canonical character created for ITV's 2007 adaptation of the novel At Bertram's Hotel. He is a millionaire aviation tycoon who owns an airline "Blake Air" as well as Bertram's Hotel. He is also the father of Elvira Blake and a former husband of Bess Sedgwick. Some seven years before the events in the show, his plane had disappeared over the Indian Ocean. At the beginning of the show, he has just been declared legally dead as seven years had passed. The various potential beeficiaries of his will therefore gathered at the hotel for the will to be read.

In the original novel, Lord Coniston is Elvira's father. This is unlikely to be the same person, although Elvira's surname in the original novel is also Blake. In this adaptation, Sir Richard's full name is read out during the reading of the will and the title Lord Coniston is not mentioned at all.

In this adaptation, Sir Richard's will left a third of his estate each to Elvira and Bess. In a departure from the original novel, the will specified the relationships, naming Elvira as "my daughter from my previous marriage" and Bess as "my ex-wife". This made the eligibility of both of them vulnerable to the legitimacy or otherwise of his marriage to Bess. In the original novel, Elvira is named in Coniston's will without mention of the relationship and she would have inherited whether or not Bess had legitimately married Lord Coniston.

Also unique to this adaptation, Selina Hazy is a relative of Sir Richard Blake. He is Selina's third cousin once removed. She used to spend her summers with him at his mansion named "Mayfield's House". In his will he left her a lithograph of the mansion. But she stood to inherit the house if Bess and Elvira both die before inheriting their shares.

One third of Sir Richard's estate is willed to the "Blake Foundation for the Arts", with Hubert Curtain, Blake's solicitor as executor. One major side plot in the show is Curtain's fraudulent handling of Blake's estate.

In the adaptation, Bertram's Hotel is used by Mr Humfries, the hotel manager and Curtain as a "ratline" or a channel for ex-Nazi fugitives to escape Europe for South America (see Herman Koch for details). Such fugitives were known as "Blake guests" and were flown in to England on Blake Air, stayed at the hotel for a few nights before being flown out. They paid for this passage with artwork which the Nazis had looted during the war. The hotel then sold the art through Curtain to interested parties. Despite the use of the name "Blake", it is not clear if Blake himself is involved in this people smuggling activity.

Sir Richard does not appear in the show in person.