Sam Wanamaker had played the same role in the original London stage production of Clifford Odets's play (with Michael Redgrave and Googie Withers in the other leading roles). Wanamaker had also been the play's director.
The actual title of Clifford Odets's play is "The Country Girl" (it was filmed in 1954), but the title was changed for its London stage production because "The Country Girl" was also the title of an operetta which had had brief popularity on the British stage over a half-century earlier.
This is a British TV version of Clifford Odets's renowned drama "The Country Girl." When the play was first done in London in 1952, it was re-titled "Winter Journey" to avoid confusion with William Wycherley's restoration comedy "The Country Wife."