Rosenthal worked briefly in advertising before joining
Granada Television in 1956. During the 1960s, he contributed material for various television comedy shows, including the satirical
That Was The Week That Was. At Granada Television, he wrote a
Coronation Street spin-off series for the character
Leonard Swindley, played by
Arthur Lowe, called
Pardon the Expression. Rosenthal also created two comedy series,
The Dustbinmen and
The Lovers, the latter starring
Richard Beckinsale and
Paula Wilcox. In 1976, he wrote a drama for ITV,
Ready When You Are, Mr McGill, which was remade in 2003. Rosenthal won three
BAFTA awards for
Bar Mitzvah Boy (about a Jewish boy's
bar mitzvah),
The Evacuees (based on his own war-time
evacuation) and
Spend, Spend, Spend (about the
football pools winner,
Viv Nicholson, directed by
John Goldschmidt). He also wrote
The Knowledge, a film about London taxi-drivers which has become a classic for cabbies-in-training. He wrote the 1986 television film ''
London's Burning for London Weekend Television, which proved so successful that it was adapted into a television series of the same name, which ran from 1988 until 2002. Rosenthal adapted the novel The Devil's Lieutenant
for director John Goldschmidt as a mini-series for Channel 4 and ZDF. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1998 Captain Jack'' (based on a true story) for Goldschmidt as producer. In 1983, Rosenthal co-wrote the film
Yentl with
Barbra Streisand. He also did uncredited work on the screenplay of
Chicken Run, and wrote the book for the musical version of
Bar Mitzvah Boy, with music by
Jule Styne. ==Personal life and death==