Fortunately, a summer Futures event offered a glimpse into this mysterious world with the help of three experts from the world-renowned Curtis Brown agency.

“My role is to be the best advocate for my clients,” said literary agent Jess Molloy.

Her colleague, Cynthia Okoye, represents screenwriters and directors from shows such as One Day, Succession and Peaky Blinders. “Ultimately, on a very basic level, we are getting clients work,” she explained.

Lara Beach from Curtis Brown’s actors department discussed the qualities an agent needs. Much of her work, she said, involves “persuasion and negotiation”, for which you need to develop an “acute awareness” of how people work.

Molloy added: “You can’t go in all guns blazing. [The job] is all about connections and contacts… you need people to want to work with you again. You have to be strong and confident, but also pleasant and charming.”

Okoye used hit Channel 4 sitcom Big Boys, created and written by Jack Rooke, a Curtis Brown client, to illustrate how a TV show can make it from idea to screen with the help of agents. “Big Boys started life as an acclaimed Edinburgh show,” she recalled.

“It had some real high and low moments; it was turned down initially by the BBC, which I am sure they are regretting, before finally getting sold to Channel 4.”

Molloy worked with the team behind RTS multi-award-winning BBC mockumentary People Just Do Nothing, which started on YouTube. It ran for five series and spawned a film, People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan, a live music project, Kurupt FM, and book and podcast spin-offs. “It’s been an amazing grass-roots success,” she said.

Curtis Brown offers internships and these give newcomers a leg-up, said Molloy, at a time when “it’s really hard to get your foot in the door”. The best way to get started, she said, was to take “opportunities that give you on-the-ground training”, the chance to make an impression and build up good contacts. “We are a contacts business and always so busy and overstretched, so when you find someone reliable, quick and efficient, we’re like ‘I can’t let you go’. You have to want to consume everything; there is so much reading, so much to watch… Show interest and talk passionately.”

“Please apply,” said Okoye. “It seems like a closed-off industry but we’re always hungry for talented applicants.” 

The 10 July RTS Futures event was hosted by Joanna Reesby, a partner at Elevate Talent, and produced by Curtis Brown and Elevate Talent