A sitcom claiming to be the world's first-ever internet sitcom which featured a cast of future stars, is finally available to view on YouTube in hi-res 21 years after it was made.

The Junkies was a pilot written by David Quantick and Jane Bussman and features performances from Sally Phillips, Peter Baynham and Peter Serafinowicz. It tells the story of the three stupidest heroin addicts in the world. Kevin Eldon also has a memorable cameo appearance (but then Kevin Eldon is famous for his memorable cameo appearances).

The producer was Jess Search and the director was Ian Denyer.

David Quantick went on to write for shows including TV Burp and The Thick of It and received an Emmy for his work on HBO's Veep. Jane Bussman became a best-selling author among other things.

Sally Phillips has gone on to work on countless comedies. Junkies was made around the same time that she was starting to find fame on C4's Smack The Pony. 

Peter Baynham worked regularly with Richard Herring and Stewart Lee and more recently has worked in Hollywood with Sacha Baron Cohen, co-writing films including the 2006 Borat film, for which he was a joint Oscar nominee for Best Adapted screenplay.

The Junkies was made on a miniscule budget. Costumes came from second hand shops, props were found in skips and the catering budget went on cheese sandwiches and economy biscuits. David Quantick spoke exclusively to BTJ about it: "We made The Junkies in 2000 for £5000 because nobody would commission it. It's still one of the things I'm most proud of. I think it's great and it's good to be reminded that Jane and me did some excellent stuff. I bet Channel Four would still wet their copious pants at the idea of making it today

Sally, Peter and Peter were a brilliant cast and improvised some fantastic lines. The cameo by Kevin Eldon is amazing - we were very lucky to have a great director and production team, who all worked for free.

I hope a new generation of comedy fans discover and enjoy this. It's still brilliant in my far from humble opinion."

The Junkies was very much ahead of its time. In fact so far ahead of its time a lot of people couldn't watch it because broadband speeds were so slow back then. It did get a large number of hits, but legend has it that this was just a few people repeatedly trying to download it.

Pictured: Sally Phillips and Peter Serafinowicz.

Watch The Junkies below