No sex please we're skittish!

It was a strange conversation amongst my fellow guests at a get together last evening.

I am not sure how we did get around to the particular subject.

It may have been prompted by a parlour game involving having a label affixed to your back bearing the name of a character from history, fiction, popular culture and entertainment. It was then a case of trying to guess the assumed identity by asking a series of questions of the roomful of players. This went along the lines, typically ,of "am I human?", " am I dead or alive?", " was I in the movies?", "was I a politician?" and similar lines of enquiry.

This interrogation rapidly exposed the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Harry Potter, Meryl Streep and not without a struggle, Lady Ga Ga.

The most difficult to guess began to fall into a distinct category. Even when reduced to the common denominators of "am I male or female?" a handful of guests remained standing, frustrated and falling well down the queue for the hot buffet being served up in the kitchen by virtue of the persistence of the post-it note attached to their persons.

The matter continued as we all sat with laden plates on our laps.

The stumbling point was obviously an inability to sex specific characters.

This may have seemed ridiculous but from the raised and animated voices in the room it had sparked off quite a debate.

Take Lassie. Arguably one of the great non-human stars of celluloid from a 1943 debut. However, depicted as a highly intelligent and compassionate female collie the actual role was taken by a male dog called Pal and, subsequently, by his dependants.

Mickey Mouse next came under scrutiny. The majority in the room went for undoubtedly a male but let's face it, what with that high pitched tone and a lack of visible genitalia even on a naked lower torso some hard questions could be raised in support of non specific gender.

Bambi. The vulnerable and awkward fawn who had a real baptism of fire could for much of the animated film be mistaken for a female but in the final scenes as a fully grown stag there is no debate to be had.

We began, collectively to throw up other examples of indeterminable sex.

The Clangers caused a near rift and schism amongst those assembled in the room, incidentally having now progressed to dessert and as for the Teletubbies, well there could have been a bit of a scuffle and agitation had we not unanimously agreed that Tinky Winky was distinctly male in his mannerisms and occasional petulance and stubborness in group situations.

No genre of character was spared the probing and sometimes quite vigorous questioning on the basis of for and against male or female sex or other legitimate points in between.

The Dr Who fans in our midst held their ground on arguing a specific exception for mechanically engineered life forms with no dangley bits or reproductive process and so by this route the Daleks and Cybermen got off lightly.

Flipper the Dolphin and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo were, it was largely agreed, asexual for the purposes of their appearance in their respective broadcasted shows but we agreed had the right to be of either sex in their own private lives off screen.

The Woodentops came into sharp focus. Spotty Dog whom we all recalled as "the very biggest spotty dog you ever did see" had to be given the benefit of the doubt on the grounds of the absence of any defining features of a male dog.

The Fingerbobs, individually made up of Fingermouse, Gulliver, Scampi and Flash presented an easy argument in that they were just an extension of the very male and bearded Rick Jones although I must apologise now for my insistence that the human collaborator was Derek Griffiths and I retract my less than complimentary opinions on the man.

The evening flew by in like minded company. We could appreciate that our choice of characters did highlight the fact the we were all roughly of a certain age and had obviously spent a disgraceful amount of time in our formative years in the 1960's and early 1970's glued to our parents' small and black and white televisions. Those were the days.