The Crowd by Ray Bradbury

After Mr Spallner crashes his car, people start to gawp but it’s only the beginning of the horror.

Joss Ackland reads another dark tale to chill the blood.

Ray Bradbury's story has as its focal point the psychological truth that all people are attracted to and even thrive upon the pain and the problems of their fellow humans.

It was possibly triggered when Bradbury was writing ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ where the protagonist, Charles Halloway, echoes the same dark truth when he says that "man salts his life with others' sorrows."

Abridged and produced by Richard Dunn.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1986.