Friends memorabilia fetches a small fortune at auction

The Friends scripts rescued from a London bin 25 years ago have fetched £22,000 at auction.

They had been recovered by a former staff member at Fountain Studios, Wembley, where the two-part episode The One With Ross’s Wedding was shot in 1998, and kept in his house ever since.

The hammer price far exceeds the £600 to £800 estimate Hertfordshire auction house Hanson Ross had put on the items.

Auctioneers said they were bought by an ‘online international bidder’ but would give no other details, 

Amanda Butler, head of operations there, told the BBC: ‘The global interest was phenomenal. Bidders went crazy for these scripts.’

The 60-year-old who saved the scripts wanted to remain anonymous.

Before the sale he explained: ‘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 weeks 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 forget 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. 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.

‘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.’

The storyline of the London episode involved Monica, Joey, Chandler and Rachel travelling to England to see Ross (David Schwimmer) marry his fiancée Emily (Helen Baxendale). The Duchess of York, Hugh  Laurie  and Richard Branson made cameos.

Published: 15 Jan 2024