The cost and pace of conventional television production pushed the writer of a new British sitcom to make his pilot with an artificial intelligence studio instead, and the finished episode is now free to watch on YouTube here.
No Big Deal, released in London on 14 September, was written and created by Andrew Dickinson and produced by ModeLabs.ai, a UK AI studio. No other sitcom is known to have been written by a human and then produced entirely with AI.
An ambitious independent production
Dickinson said the original plan had been to shoot the pilot conventionally. “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.
What followed was an extended back and forth rather than a single automated pass, he said. “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 approach made an otherwise unfundable project possible. “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. He added: “We’re incredibly proud of what our team has achieved. Combining emerging AI technology with talented writers and filmmakers has opened up exciting new creative possibilities, and we’re grateful to Andrew for trusting us with his vision.”
Janus, and the pitches it hears
The sitcom is set at Janus, an investment firm chasing the next billion-pound business idea, usually with disastrous results. Derek Tudor is a brilliant but unpredictable investor who cannot keep his thoughts to himself, and Lydia de Mabro is the firm’s de facto leader after its only successful investment earned her a board seat.
John Stevens, a well-meaning but spectacularly underqualified founder, inherited the money to start his business, while Perry Kent is an experienced investment banker treating Janus as a stepping stone to a US Green Card. The pitches put in front of them include fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture, and each apparently promising investment finishes in comic disaster.
Music written by the creator
Dickinson, a former angel investor and investment manager, said the material came from his years in the industry. “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 said of the result: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
Episode one of No Big Deal is out now and can be viewed free on YouTube here.
The series is on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.
