"What's Wrong with Humpty Dumpty?" is the story of a married man having a passionate affair with a younger woman. Spoiler... it all blows up in his face at the end. It might be an old story, but like many episodes that I've seen in Armchair Theatre, the story might not be unique, but the acting is so good that it elevates the episode into something highly engaging. Donald Houston plays David, the married man as a nattily-dressed loudmouth narcissistic jerk... but with some standing as a documentary filmmaker. His wife, played by Katharine Blake, is a highly accomplished author of children's books (at least, I think there were children's books... or perhaps something similar to Harry Potter). Despite being so accomplished, she chooses to take a backseat to her husband's ambitions, even contemplating the cancellation of her North American book tour just to avoid inconveniencing her husband. As the plot moves along, we discover that David, despite all his bluster, is actually a mediocre talent, lacking the competence to create a quality product (in one scene, we learned that is forced to reshoot an entire documentary because it was shot out of focus). It's his wife who is the real talent. Although she's not the least bit ugly (in fact, she's quite elegant), David prefers the younger woman, Caroline (played by a young Lynn Redgrave), who is starstruck by him, and is willing to meet up with him frequently for passionate trysts. This episode was really enjoyable in how it all played out. The ending scene, too, is actually quite funny. Of course, there is a serious message here. David was blind to how good his life was. His wife deserved better than him. And the young woman turns out not to be single either. So, like what happens with so many philanderers in real life, the cheating husband is destined to end up alone. What makes this episode better than simply a moralistic fable is that the characters are sharply drawn and three-dimensional. A pleasure to watch.
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