London, UK – 14 Sept, 2026: an independent British sitcom priced out of conventional television production has been made using AI instead, and put out free on YouTube. No Big Deal, written by Andrew Dickinson and produced by the UK AI studio ModeLabs.ai, is believed to be the world’s first sitcom written by a human and produced entirely using AI. The pilot is available to watch here.
Cost, not novelty, drove the decision
Dickinson spent his earlier career as an angel investor and investment manager, which gave the show its subject matter and, indirectly, its production method. The traditional route was costed and then abandoned.
“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 pilot therefore arrives outside the commissioning system: no broadcaster attached, and no paywall on the other side of it. For independent producers, the falling cost of getting something ambitious finished is likely to matter more than the technology used to finish it.
Janus and its deal flow
Janus, the fictional investment firm at the centre of the series, spends its time chasing the next billion-pound business idea, usually with disastrous results. Lydia de Mabro is its de facto leader after the firm’s only successful investment earned her a board seat. Derek Tudor, brilliant and entirely unpredictable, cannot keep his thoughts to himself for long. Perry Kent, an experienced investment banker, treats the job as a stepping stone to a US Green Card, and John Stevens is a well-meaning but spectacularly underqualified founder who inherited the money to start the business. The deal flow runs to fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture, and every promising investment ends in comic disaster.
How the studio frames it
ModeLabs.ai, which built the episode, argues the work points to a wider shift in who is able to make ambitious programming at all. Dan Hawthorne said:
“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.”
The build was not quick. Every shot, camera movement and line reading was planned and remade through an iterative exchange between the writing and production teams, and the script was rewritten more than 65 times during production. Dickinson wrote all of the original music as well, performed and recorded with the musician Andy Pike.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
Episode one has gone out free on YouTube and can be viewed here.
The series keeps accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.
