David Schwimmer had to be begged and bribed to accept the role of Ross on Friends, according to the producers of the show.

Show writers had to plead with the actor not to turn his back on TV.

The frustrated star turned his attention to theatre after becoming fed up with the direction his career was going on.

On the Friends reunion show, it was revealed he didn't want to take the role.

He took a lot of convincing and turned it down before a change of heart.

Producers Marta Kauffman, Kevin Bright and David Crane were so determined to get their man that they sent him gifts to show how much he was wanted.

Crane said: "We tried to get David, but we were told David had quit television.

"He moved back to Chicago just to do theatre. We had to be beg him, and we had to besiege him!"

Marta quickly added: "We sent him gift baskets!"

Crane went on: "We assured him that whatever his experience before, this would be totally different."

The Friends star admitted in an interview to promote the reunion that the cast had a strict "no hook-up rule" while filming.

He said: "We didn't want to jeopardise any of the great relationships and friendships we were forming and had established. It was kind of an unspoken [rule]."

Matthew Perry, Chandler Bing in the show, spoke more about it.

"There was a rule that we had, it was really important to the six of us, that we kept a friendship; that we were friends," he told Access.

So we kept a friendship, and we did become really good friends," he added.

"And we are really good friends to this day. And we kept that going, and I think that was very important."

Watch Friends: The Reunion on Sky One and streaming service NOW from Thursday 27 May

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