Are you ready to enter another dimension? From TV to cinema to video games, everyone’s going 3-D. This week Channel 4 has a special schedule of 3-D programmes, including unseen footage of the Queen’s Coronation, shown tonight, and a Hannah Montana concert on Sunday at 3pm. You can even watch Derren Brown perform his mesmerising magic in 3-D. Pick up a pair of glasses at Sainsbury’s to enjoy the effects.

You might also have caught the new movie, Up, which uses 3-D technology to make viewers feel that they are flying through the sky in a house attached to hundreds of balloons. Next month will be the release of Avatar, which uses cutting-edge, 3-D images to take us to the future, where an army of human beings is leaving a dying Earth to colonise an alien moon.

What’s all the fuss about? For more than a hundred years, filmmakers have chased the dream of telling a story using 3-D images that make us feel we are walking among the characters. It’s back on the agenda now for several reasons.

As TV has improved, and more people stay at home to watch DVDs, the pressure is on for film companies to come up with dazzling effects, so that audiences feel they have to see something on the big screen. Films such as Avatar may also save the movie industry from one of its biggest threats — piracy. Copied versions of 3-D films just won’t look the same, so it is hoped that movie fans will pay to see them at the cinema. Now, with millions of pounds being invested in 3-D, the sky is the limit. A cinema chain has announced plans to screen England’s World Cup matches in 3-D next year, so that fans will feel they are really there with Beckham and Rooney. The electronics company Philips has also created a 3-D television. Soon Simon Cowell could be popping out of your TV and into your living room— quite a thought.

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