Friends scripts rescued from a studio bin to go under the hammer

The scripts were supposed to have been destroyed to prevent giving away the episode endings, the auction house said

Original scripts from two UK-set episodes of Friends that were rescued from a bin are being sold at auction.

The Season Four finale drafts were recovered in 1998 by a staff member at Fountain Studios, Wembley, where the two episodes were filmed.

Amanda Butler, of Hanson Ross auctioneers in Royston, Hertfordshire, said they should have been destroyed "so the ending wouldn't be leaked".

The scripts are expected to sell for between £600 and £800.

They were used for the two-part season finale entitled The One With Ross's Wedding.

The episodes were filmed in Fountain Studios, Wembley, which closed in 2016

Members of the main cast, including Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, filmed scenes in England.

The unnamed seller had worked at Fountain Studios until 1999 but had kept the scripts in a bedside drawer before having a clear-out.

"I remember wondering which member of the cast they might have belonged to," they said.

"When I came to clear my desk I just swept everything into a big cardboard box. I forgot the scripts were there.

"They ended up in a bedside drawer and they've been there ever since. I could have quite easily have thrown them out.

"These scripts deserve to be owned by a big Friends fan."

Channel 4, the British broadcaster of Friends, proposed an episode set in the United Kingdom

They will now will be auctioned on 12 January alongside a production hoodie and a Friends DVD box set.

Ms Butler said it is not clear who the scripts belonged to but it would have been somebody within the cast or crew of the TV show.

"There is a sticker for a chap called John Lanzer who is a set designer so they possibly could have been his," she said.

The head of operations admitted to being a huge Friends fan, adding: "It's just surreal to read it and see in writing what you've seen on the screen".

She warned that dedicated fans may exceed the estimate auction.

"The sky's the limit, if people want them they will bid for them," she said.

Head of operations Amanda Butler said she threw a party to watch the final Friends episode in 2004