The nation has a dark, dark secret - a passion for some unlikely pin-ups.

It looks like plenty of us ladies quietly lust after a less-than-obvious heartthrob - and we've definitely got a thing for silver foxes.

With his year-round tan and well-kept silver mane, 45-year-old This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield is the UK's top less-than-obvious sexpot.

He has been voted the UK's number one unlikely sex symbol in a poll entitled Men I Secretly Adore by DatingDirect.com, followed by floppy haired chat show host Jonathan Ross.

Jeremy Clarkson was placed in third position by around 5,000 female members of the online service who were asked to state their secret fancies.

However, the Top Gear star was surprisingly bashful about the accolade.

He told the Sun: "So I beat a man who looks like Shrek (Capello), a man with ears the size of satellite dishes (Lineker), and a man who calls a spade a spade (Ramsay). Doesn't say much."

England manager Fabio Capello got the fourth spot, while news presenter Trevor McDonald took fifth place and foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay got sixth.

Gary Lineker (seventh), Michael Palin (eighth), Terry Wogan (ninth) and Bruce Forsyth (tenth) made it into the top ten.

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