I was casually browsing through my magazines (all clean ones by the way!) and I found my Big Brother 2002 ones! Inside, there are a timeline, showing the buildup to big brother, i will type it out here:

September 2001 - Initial discussions for BB3 begin

October 2001 - Location (Elstree) is found. Markus Blee begins initial design

December - Final house design is confirmed. Aplication forms are sent off

january 2002 - launch prgramme airs on Channe; 4. Work begins on the house and 11 producers sart their work. Executives go to Hollad to see how they use the rich/poor divide. All application forms are read.

February - Team begin thinking of new ideas for BB3.

March 2002 - Over 2,500 people are invited back to the auditions. Narrowed down to 100.

April - Final 12 are selected, but are not told.

May - Guinea pigs move in, rehearsals begin. Launch of Big Bro 2002!!!!!!

If they follow the same structure, the house is well under way, the the applicants are being whittled down as i type!

What do you guys think?

thats amazing thanks for this anything else youve found

Thats very good.

Its weird to think that right now the BB6 house has been designed and is being made, that the producers have a rough idea of this years housemates and that they have almost decided on this years set of tasks...

i love the build up to big brother

So do I, its really good to hear all the rumours and see the pics of the house.

Yep, It shouldn't be long before the pics start floating around in the press, about another month (april/may) and it starts happening then

Yep, I remember The Sun had pictures of the BB5 house being built around early May and it showed a rough idea of the house whilst the News of the World had an almost completley accurate layout of the house in the 2 weeks before it started. Pictures should be coming earlier if they do go ahead with the launch date of May 5th as rumours suggest.

Yep, looking at bb gossip.com (Why do the blank links out!!??) I have noticed that the rumours for BB5 were arriving in about 2 weeks before the Launch, but the rumours in the community really start in Late April!