A British sitcom that its makers believe to be the first written by a human and produced entirely using artificial intelligence has released its pilot episode, which is free to watch on YouTube here.
No Big Deal was written and created by Andrew Dickinson and produced by ModeLabs.ai, a UK artificial intelligence studio. Released in London on 14 September, it is billed as the world’s first sitcom scripted in the conventional way and then made from beginning to end using AI production tools.
Janus and its unfortunate investments
The comedy takes place in the world of venture capital, at an investment firm called Janus, where the staff chase the next billion-pound business idea, usually with disastrous results. Brilliant and unpredictable in equal measure, Derek Tudor is an investor who cannot keep his thoughts to himself. Lydia de Mabro leads the firm in practice rather than on paper, a position she owes to the board seat that came with its only successful investment.
Two more complete the office. John Stevens means well but is spectacularly underqualified for the business he inherited the money to start, and Perry Kent, the one experienced investment banker among them, is using Janus as a stepping stone to a US Green Card. Their meeting rooms fill with pitches for fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture, and nothing that looks promising avoids ending in comic disaster.
Written by a former investor
Dickinson, a former angel investor and investment manager, said the storylines were drawn from his own working life. “I wrote No Big Deal during my time as an angel investor and investment manager. Every storyline began with a real incident that has been exaggerated and expanded for comic effect. I also wrote all of the original music used throughout the series, which was performed and recorded with the help of my good friend and outstanding musician Andy Pike.
He had first intended to shoot the pilot in the usual way. “I originally planned to make the pilot through traditional television production, but it quickly became clear that the process would be slow and prohibitively expensive. When I met the team at ModeLabs, I realised AI offered an entirely new way to bring the project to life.
Script rewritten more than 65 times
Dickinson said the AI production was far from automatic. “Making the Pilot wasn’t simply a case of pressing a button. Every shot, camera movement, performance, line reading, location and visual detail had to be carefully planned, refined and recreated through an iterative creative process between the writing and production teams. Even while we were making it, the script was rewritten more than 65 times.
Dan Hawthorne of ModeLabs.ai said the technology should not overshadow the writing. “Nobody questions whether the CGI in a Marvel film is ‘cheating’. People judge entertainment by how it makes them feel, not by the tools used to create it. He added: “No Big Deal is brilliantly written and genuinely funny. AI isn’t the punchline – it’s simply the production technology that made an ambitious independent comedy possible.
Dickinson’s own verdict on the episode is straightforward. “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
Anyone wanting to judge the results can watch episode one free of charge on YouTube, here.
No Big Deal has a presence on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.