TV's Unlikely Sex Symbols

I am addicted to US import House, now on Sky1. I am also addicted to its star, Hugh Laurie as Doctor Gregory House. Serious question now - when did Hugh Laurie get so damn sexy?

He's fifty, balding and although extremely interesting-looking, he's not an obvious sex symbol. However, millions like me are pulled in by a definite on-screen magnetism. Then again, he leaves some people cold.

It's that adage of one (wo)man's meat being another (wo)man's poison, isn't it? Example: for every female (or male), salivating over Grey's Anatomy's McDreamy, played by Patrick Dempsey, there's another that can't see past Ashes To Ashes' Gene Hunt.

Similarly, the likes of Kirstie Allsopp and Fern Britton are heralded as 'real' women and preferred to the endless gaggle of WAGs, WAG-wannabes and glamour models. See why the following stars have made our gallery of TV's unlikely sex symbols. The reasons may surprise you…

• Which unconventional TV looker gets you going? Have your say here

The views in this column/blog are those of the author alone and not of MSN or Microsoft.