He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original television plays, feature films, and adaptations.

[1] He was the younger of two sons to father Sam, a raincoat factory worker, and mother Leah (née Miller) Rosenthal.

During the Second World War, he was evacuated to Blackpool, Lancashire with an inhospitable family who censored his letters and confiscated his food parcels.

[1] In 1953, after studying English Literature at Sheffield University, he carried out his national service in the Royal Navy as a Russian translator.

[1][4] He earned his first television credit with Granada in 1961, assigned as a writer of episode 31 of what would become Britain's longest-running soap opera, Coronation Street.

[6] At Granada Television, he wrote a Coronation Street spin-off series for the character Leonard Swindley, played by Arthur Lowe, called Pardon the Expression.

[14] On 23 February 1964, Rosenthal married model Catherine Ward in Blackpool, Lancashire; two years later, the marriage ended in divorce.