Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch has beaten former Doctor Who star David Tennant to the top spot in a RadioTimes.com poll asking users to choose which male TV personality they’d most like to take on a Valentine’s Day date.


More than 27,000 of our users voted in the poll, with 12,141 making Cumberbatch their first choice date and 10,352 favouring Tennant.

Meanwhile, over 6,000 voted for their fantasy female date, with a similar pattern emerging. Sherlock’s Louise Brealey – who plays lab technician Molly Hooper – came top with 1,625 votes, ensuring Doctor Who alumnus Billie Piper remained in second with 1,134.

A grateful Brealey messaged her Twitter followers last night: “Thank you for all the Valentine messages, and for your votes in the Radio Times poll! What a nice thing to come home to… x”.

The stars of Sherlock and Doctor Who dominated the voting, with Martin Freeman – who plays Sherlock’s sidekick, John – the third most popular male date, with 1,722 votes, and John Barrowman – aka Doctor Who and Torchwood’s Captain Jack Harkness – fourth with 861 votes.

In the female poll, Lara Pulver – who played dominatrix Irene Adler in Sherlock – came third with 833 votes, narrowly beating Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan into fourth place with 810.

While it’s a definite win for Benedict, Louise and Sherlock over Doctor Who, it’s also a triumph for a more cerebral class of pin-up (and a more discerning breed of website user).

When the most dateable actors on TV play a detective with superhuman deductive skills and a laboratory scientist, the words of Sherlock’s Irene Adler ring true: “Brainy is the new sexy”.


See the full results of the poll