The TV series Rumpole of the Bailey ran on ITV from 1978 to 1992, but it started out as this one-off Play for Today on the BBC. From the very first scene he appears in, Horace Rumpole is there and fully formed as a character, embodied by Leo McKern in the only role that could possibly overshadow his Number Two (in my mind, at least). This scene also features the first use of his catchphrase (one of many), referring to his wife Hilda as "She Who Must Be Obeyed."
With only an hour to tell a complete story, the only characters from the later TV series who appear here are the members of the Rumpole family. Both wife Hilda and son Nick are written quite differently, in service of the plot being told here, their characterisation later being softened considerably to make them suitable for an ongoing series. Hilda especially is very different, and it is impossible to imagine series-Hilda as a quiet alcoholic, sinking a bottle of gin in one night as her only way of escaping from her domestic situation.
This is because while the main plot is ostensibly a comic tale about the crime Rumpole is the defence barrister for, his struggle to get his client off in the face of the evidence against him, and his subsequent victory in court, the sub-plot is a tragic one as the Rumpoles' son Nick, now grown up, leaves for a job in America and so his parents face having an 'empty nest' and a hole in their lives. Rumpole can fill this gap with his job, but where does that leave Hilda?*
The tragic side would remain present in the TV series through its first two seasons, often as an undertone (before disappearing entirely by the end of the third), but never to such an extent as here. This is probably due to the larger cast of characters made possible in a long-running series, and one where many of the other characters, such as Rumpole's fellow barristers, would largely be comic foils for Rumpole to play off. We get close to this here when Vernon Dobtcheff makes an appearance as the prosecuting barrister opposing Rumpole in court, and he is shown to be no match for the experienced Rumpole's many tricks of the trade.
While Rumpole is the member of the family who comes closest to their final TV series form, there is a crucial difference in the character we see here, hidden by the fact he is played by McKern (both Hilda and Nick would be recast) in such a similar way to series-Rumpole. The Rumpole of the Play for Today could never have sustained a full series, because all his eccentricities and character tics are revealed to us here to be an act; a front that he puts on to enable him to get through the day and do his job. They are to him what the gin is to Hilda.
While there are some hints of this self-awareness in the series version (again, in the early seasons only), the eccentricities are mostly played for real, since, after all, the character is much more fun that way, and it suits the lighter tone of the more overtly comedic series. But what this means is that the character of Rumpole has already been deconstructed, before his TV series even began.
Predeconstructed, if you will.
* The TV series would solve this by retconning Hilda as having friends and an extended family (who didn't get on with Rumpole), as well as meddling in her husband's job due to her father having been a barrister. Essentially an entirely new backstory and characterisation.
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