At an investment firm called Janus, four people spend their days hunting for the next billion-pound business idea. What they actually get is fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture, and every promising investment ends in comic disaster. That is the premise of No Big Deal, a British sitcom whose pilot episode went live free on YouTube and can be watched here.
The office holds four recognisable types. Derek Tudor is brilliant but unpredictable and cannot keep his thoughts to himself. Lydia de Mabro runs the place in practice, having earned a board seat off the firm’s only successful investment. John Stevens inherited the money that started his business and remains a well-meaning founder, if a spectacularly underqualified one. For Perry Kent, an experienced investment banker, the firm is chiefly a stepping stone towards a US Green Card.
Written from the inside
The show comes from writer and creator Andrew Dickinson, a former angel investor and investment manager.
“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.”
What sets the pilot apart is how it was made. It is believed to be the world’s first sitcom written by a human and produced entirely using AI, by the UK studio ModeLabs.ai. The decision was practical.
“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.”
The tools are not the joke
Dan Hawthorne of ModeLabs.ai argues that audiences judge the result, not the method.
“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.
“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.”
The account of how the episode came together is not one of push-button production. The script was rewritten more than 65 times.
“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.”
Hawthorne said the studio was pleased with the outcome.
“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.”
There is no charge for episode one of No Big Deal, which sits on YouTube, here.
Anyone wanting more can find the series on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.
