Scripts for the popular American TV show, Friends, are set to go to auction in Hertfordshire, after being found in a bin 25 years ago.
The items will be auctioned on Friday (January 12) at the Hanson Ross Auction in Royston.
The scripts have an estimate of £600 to £800, and feature 'The One With Ross's Wedding' parts one and two.
The scripts should have been destroyed after filming, but were discovered by chance in 1998 by a former staff member at Fountain Studios, Wembley, where the two episodes were filmed.
The 60-year-old retired Londoner said: “I used to work in admin support at the studios.
"I never saw any of the Friends cast but I remember it was madly busy.
"There was a real buzz about the place and I did my best to help.
"They needed a studio audience and I helped to distribute tickets to people who won a London radio station competition to watch Friends being filmed.
"Only recently, I discovered a ticket inside one of the scripts.
“I found them in a bin a couple of week’s after filming had finished. It was part of my job to ensure everything was tidy and no rubbish was left around.
"I wasn’t sure what to do with them so just put them in my office drawer. I remember wondering which member of the cast they might have belonged to.
“I left Fountain Studios in 1999 and when I came to clear my desk I just swept everything into a big cardboard box. I forgot the scripts were there. They were mixed up in a pile of paperwork.
"It wasn’t until I checked through the box a few months later that I found them. They ended up in a bedside drawer and they’ve been there ever since."
He continued: "I could have quite easily have thrown them out. Recently I’ve been clearing my house ahead of a move and I came across them again.
“I was visiting family in Hertfordshire and decided to take them for valuation at Hanson Ross. It will be exciting to see what they make at auction.
"Funnily enough, I’m not a big Friends fan. I don’t dislike the show but I only recently watched the episodes I have the scripts for. American humour is different to ours.
"These scripts deserve to be owned by a big Friends fan.”
Hanson Ross' head of operations described the auction team's surprise when the scripts were brought in.
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Amanda Butler added: "They were brought along to our saleroom for valuation and we were amazed. Friends fans will absolutely love these.
"They sweep us back to 1998 when Ross, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Rachel travelled to England to see Ross (David Schwimmer) marry his fiancée Emily (Helen Baxendale) in London.
“Apparently, the cast and crew were ordered to destroy their copies so the ending wouldn’t be leaked. However, these two slipped through the net.
"We’re guiding them at £600-£800 but thanks to the show’s huge global appeal who knows where the hammer may fall."
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