During his seven-year period of working at Granada, Apted also directed a number of episodes of "Coronation Street," then written by Jack Rosenthal, among others. Apted and Rosenthal later collaborated on a number of popular television and film projects, including the pilot episodes for "The Dustbinmen" and "The Lovers". They worked together again in 1982 for the TV movie "P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang", the first film commissioned by Britain's Channel 4. In 1976 Apted directed a play in the Granada TV series "Laurence Olivier Presents". The episode was "The Collection" by Harold Pinter. The play starred Laurence Olivier, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren.