Can men and women ever be just friends? It is the eternal question that When Harry Met Sally set out to answer in 1989, and endless romcoms have continued to debate in the decades since (Friends with Benefits, 13 Going on 30 and so on).

According to one new survey, the answer is a straight no. Social network MeetMe polled 6,500 of its users and found that more than half of people said they have fantasised about sleeping with their best friend of the opposite gender. What's more, nearly 40 per cent (four out of 10) reported actually having slept with said best friend, while two thirds admitted they would if the opportunity presented itself.

The numbers seem pretty damning. Yet could the truth be more nuanced? Research published in February this year would suggest so. Instead of focusing on the "sex part” that Billy Crystal’s character Harry was so preoccupied by, it looked at what I have always suspected to be the real problem between the genders: how they define friendship.