I was really looking forward to Monday evenings's Life after People on Channel 4, but in the event, I was rather disappointed. It was advertised as a documentary, but in this respect, the programme did not begin well. We had to assume that the entire human race had vanished overnight, leaving pets trapped in their homes and cars stranded on driveways. This seemed an improbable end to civilisation. But if dogs did manage to get out, most breeds (those that have short legs and noses, for example) would not do well in the wild, apparently. Neither would rodents or seagulls flourish, since their huge numbers are actually artificially boosted by our way of life.

These facts (when we got them) were very interesting. To learn how quickly the London Underground would flood if the pumps stopped working was a revelation. The emphasis on the US throughout the programme spoke loudly, however, of Channel 4's potential market. It would have been more balanced and more interesting to see some examples from the southern hemisphere instead of concentrating on the US and a couple of European capitals. We got a brief glimpse of Angkor Wat, but nothing from the Mayan and Inca civilisations.

There was certainly an attempt to provide well-presented, matter-of-fact information, especially by figures such as the Scottish engineer Gordon Masterson. But other parts of the presentation might have been decided on by a sensationalist tabloid editor. The computer graphics were very effective, but repeated too often. Images of the Brooklyn Bridge collapsing into the East River, or the front of a building sliding to the ground, were reminiscent of the news coverage of 9/11. And how many times did we need to see the abandoned doll in the Ukrainian children's home?

The narrative was tautological, cliché-ridden and often silly (a tower struck by lightning after the conductor failed became a "blazing inferno"; cockroaches, apparently, will welcome the end of the human race). And how sad to think that archive film and Hollywood movies will bubble up and perish, so that nobody will be able to see them. In view of the title, who did the producers expect to be watching?

All in all, it was a wasted television opportunity. There were nuggets of good research put across by knowledgeable people and the graphics were vivid. But this was spoiled by the irritatingly scrappy presentation, the inadequate introduction, and, on reflection, a lack of a great many things that we could have been told about, but weren't.

Rosemary Mathew, librarian, Cambridge

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