After being voted more influential than Lady Gaga, Barack Obama and Adele a few weeks back, Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch has topped a sexiest man poll – beating out competition from One Direction, Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson!

As Irene Adler said in the series two première of Sherlock, “brainy is the new sexy.” Or so a poll conducted by The Sun says, as the actor has topped the list, receiving over double the votes for second-place David Beckham.

Twilight star Robert Pattinson only managed a surprisingly low place of 21, and One Direction band members Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horran, Louis Tomilson and Liam Payne bagged themselves 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 11th respectively. Zac Efron (most recently seen in The Lucky One) was voted into 9th position.

The poll was calculated purely by readers votes, and Cumberbatch‎‎’s success was due largely to a fan movement on Tumblr. The top 10 “sexiest” men as voted by The Sun readers looks like this:

Does Benedict deserve his spot, or is this another example of passionate fans skewing results?