Arthur Alan Blakey (usually called simply The Man in playbills) is a fictional character in Mary Hayley Bell's novel Whistle Down the Wind (1959). The novel has been repeatedly adapted to film and stage, including an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Blakey, a dangerous killer (whose murder tally varies between adaptations), escapes from prison, and hides in a rural village where a group of pious children mistake him for the Second Coming of Jesus. This sets off a paradoxical series of events which parallel the Gospel narrative and lead to an awakening of conscience in several characters.
