Davina McCall and George LambWe've been hearing whispers about Thursday night's Big Brother launch.

And whilst we're in for a TV treat - the housemates are in for torture (cue evil laughs emanating from TV Towers).

Our sources at BB HQ tell us that the sixteen contestants who enter the house won't be allowed to get too comfortable on launch night.

Within minutes of arriving, Big Brother will announce that they are not yet official housemates and will not be given access to the full house.

Instead of settling in for the next 13 weeks, the eight men and eight women (aged 18 to 40), will have three days to complete tasks and earn housemate status.

Only once the 'hopefuls' have successfully completed a task and been granted housemate status will they be given access to the 'real' Big Brother house. Until then they will be restricted to the living room (void of any creature comforts), a toilet and the garden.

They'll also be denied access to their suitcases, and will be forced to spend their first night sleeping on the living room floor while bathing will be a bath in the garden which can only be filled by carrying cold water in a hole-ridden bucket across the garden.

Each task has been designed to challenge the hopefuls' fears and pride and some will require them to go head to head against one another in a bid to become a bone fide housemate.

Sharon Power, one of the show's executive producers, said the 16 had been in hiding for weeks and had no idea what was in store for them.

"Everybody is expecting to walk into a normal Big Brother house with lots of rooms and furniture and places to go, and they will actually have this one living room and the garden," she said.

"They will arrive in a car and walk through the crowd as normal and go into the house. The first time they will realise something is up is when they walk in.

"After 10 years we are trying to come up with ways of surprising viewers and housemates," Sharon added.

We admit we were a teensy bit worried about BB becoming a bore this summer. Now... not so much.

Find out when Big Brother is on TV.