The pilot episode of No Big Deal, a British sitcom set in the world of venture capital, has been released free on YouTube and can be watched here.
The show, which premiered in London on 14 September, was written and created by Andrew Dickinson and produced by ModeLabs.ai, a UK artificial intelligence studio. The production is thought to be a first of its kind, a sitcom written by a person and then made in its entirety with AI.
The firm and its founders
No Big Deal is set at Janus, an investment firm on the hunt for the next billion-pound business idea, usually with disastrous results. Four characters carry the pilot. Derek Tudor, an investor of brilliant and unpredictable judgement, cannot keep his thoughts to himself. Lydia de Mabro runs the firm in practice, having taken a board seat as a result of its one successful investment. John Stevens means well, yet he is spectacularly underqualified for the business he inherited the money to start. Perry Kent, an investment banker of some experience, regards Janus mainly as a stepping stone to a US Green Card.
A running gag has the firm sitting through pitches for fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture. Anything that looks like a promising investment finishes in comic disaster.
Drawn from real incidents
Dickinson was an angel investor and investment manager before he wrote the series, and said the plots came out of that period. “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.
Of the production itself, he said the work was detailed and repetitive rather than instant. “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.
Tools and reaction
Dan Hawthorne, of ModeLabs.ai, said the choice of production technology should not determine how a comedy is judged. “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 also said: “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.
Dickinson said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
The first episode of No Big Deal is out now and free to watch on YouTube here.
The sitcom keeps accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.
