Friends hits UK screens with Netflix

For all you box set binge-watchers yet more temptation lies ahead, with Netflix revealing Friends can now be streamed in the UK and Ireland.

Fans of the show can watch all 10 series of the hugely successful US sitcom featuring Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Joey and Chandler.

Netflix recently hinted it may stream Friends, tweeting: "The One with the Show Everyone's Been Asking Us to Add."

Repeats of the show were broadcast on Channel 4 and E4 until 2011.

The show, which can still be seen on TV in the UK on Comedy Central UK, starred David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox.

They played a group of easy-going friends living in New York, with the series including guest appearances from stars including Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis and Tom Selleck.

Friends also featured cameos from Brad Pitt and David Arquette, who at the time were the real-life husbands of Aniston and Arquette respectively.

At its peak it spawned catchphrases, calendars, notebooks, mugs, T-shirts, video and DVD box sets and even copycat haircuts, most famously "the Rachel", a version of Aniston's cut at the time.

The last ever episode, from series 10, drew an audience of 8.6 million viewers to Channel 4 when it was screened in 2004. It drew a whopping 51.1 million people in the US.

Responses to Netflix's tweet were largely positive.

But not everyone was pleased - some felt that the show has already been shown "a million times over", and requested The Office US instead.

But Netflix responded by joking that binge-watching the show was the way forward.