Derek Tudor is a brilliant but unpredictable investor who cannot keep his thoughts to himself, which is an awkward trait in a job that runs on discretion. He is one of four characters at the centre of No Big Deal, a British sitcom whose pilot episode arrived on 14 September and can be watched free here.
Four people and one investment firm
The firm is Janus and its business is chasing the next billion-pound business idea. Lydia de Mabro is its de facto leader, a position she reached after the company’s only successful investment earned her a board seat. John Stevens is the well-meaning but spectacularly underqualified founder who inherited the money to start the business. Perry Kent has the most conventional CV of the four, that of an experienced investment banker, although his interest in Janus extends only as far as the US Green Card he hopes it will help him reach.
The pitches supply the running gag. Fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture all find their way into the room, and every promising investment ends in comic disaster.
Written out of a real career
Writer and creator Andrew Dickinson spent his earlier career as an angel investor and investment manager, and says the stories began with things that actually happened to him.
“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 had first intended to make the pilot the conventional way.
“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.”
A sitcom produced with AI
The episode was made with ModeLabs.ai, a UK AI studio, and is believed to be the world’s first sitcom written by a human and produced entirely using AI. The script was rewritten more than 65 times while production was under way.
Dan Hawthorne of ModeLabs.ai said audiences tend not to worry about the tools behind a comedy.
“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.”
For Dickinson, the test is whether the characters still land.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
There is no paywall and no subscription attached. The opening episode sits on YouTube, free to watch, here.
Cast news and clips go out through YouTube, with the show also on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Reddit.
