Britain’s Fully AI Made Sitcom Is Here and You Can Watch It Free
British sitcom No Big Deal has been produced entirely using AI and released free on YouTube, giving viewers a chance to judge AI-made television for themselves
A British sitcom produced entirely using artificial intelligence has arrived on YouTube, giving viewers one of the clearest opportunities yet to see what a full television comedy created with generative AI actually looks like.
No Big Deal is written by Andrew Dickinson and produced with UK studio ModeLabs.ai. The 25-minute pilot follows the team at fictional investment firm Janus as they search for the next billion-pound business idea, with the concept described as a combination of The Office and Dragons’ Den.
Unlike productions where AI is used for individual effects, backgrounds or specific sequences, the visuals in No Big Deal were produced using AI. Dickinson remained responsible for the writing, drawing inspiration from his own experiences as an angel investor and investment manager.
That does not mean an AI system simply generated an entire sitcom from a single instruction.
The production involved repeatedly developing individual shots, camera movements, performances and locations. Dickinson has said the script itself went through more than 65 rewrites during the process. The programme’s original music was also written by Dickinson and performed and recorded by musician Andy Pike.
The project was not originally intended to be made this way. Dickinson had planned to produce No Big Deal using conventional television production, but said the process proved too slow and expensive. Working with ModeLabs offered another route to getting the idea onto screen.
Now viewers can judge the finished result for themselves, and the programme is already generating discussion about what AI-produced television can realistically achieve.
Critical reaction has varied. The Guardian gave No Big Deal zero stars out of five, focusing particularly on the appearance and performances of its AI-generated characters, while other coverage has concentrated more heavily on the technology and unusual production process behind the episode.
That reaction is part of what makes the experiment interesting. Rather than demonstrating AI filmmaking through a carefully selected short clip, the team has attempted to sustain characters, performances, locations and a comedy narrative across an entire 25-minute programme.
ModeLabs believes audiences will ultimately judge entertainment by whether they enjoy what they are watching rather than which production tools were used to create it. No Big Deal now gives viewers the opportunity to make that judgement for themselves.
Whether it works as a sitcom is ultimately down to the audience, but it provides a fascinating snapshot of just how far AI video production has progressed and where it still has room to develop.
UK viewers can watch the first episode of No Big Deal free on YouTube now.
