How old was Richard Blaney Supposed to be?

I think they try to connect Blaney to the Suez crisis, which I believe was around 1956. Assuming Blaney at 40 in 1972, that would have made him 24 in Suez!

Hitchcock himself knew he was dealing with a problem here. He had first offered the role of Richard Blaney to the more age-appropriate Richard Burton, and then to Richard Harris. As those big names said no, Hitchcock worked his way down to the little-known but handsome and commanding Jon Finch, and elected to "go with it." (His casting notes for "Frenzy" say: Richard Blaney...Jon Finch(unless he is too young.)

On another angle, Hitchocck complained to Truffaut in a 70's letter that the studio wanted "young people as leads." Thus, forty or fifty-somehting characters from the novels of Frenzy("Goodbye, Picadilly, Farewell Leiceister Square) and Family Plot(The Rainbird Pattern) become 30 and 40-something actors(Jon Finch, Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, William Devane, etc.)

And of course, 27-year old Anthony Perkins played Norman Bates for Hitchocck -- and Norman was 40 years old in Robert Bloch's novel of Psycho.

Blaney is around 35, Brenda's secretary tells inspector Oxford on her statement. If the story actually takes place in 1971-72, when the film was made, then Blaney was 20 or 21 at the time of the Suez crisis while doing his national service at the RAF.