As Gareth in the British series "The Office," Mackenzie Crook played a suck-up who was a target for everyone on the show. Some 15 yearsafter "The Office" helped define "cringe" as a comedy genre, Mr. Crook created a series with a softer touch.

The 44-year-old actor writes, directs and stars in "Detectorists," a comedy about a club of small-town hobbyists who use metal detectors to hunt for buried treasure while looking for happiness in their lives. After its debut in 2014, the show became a low-key hit on BBC Four and won two awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

"Not that I'm against cringe comedy, but this was an experiment to see if I could come up with something that doesn't rely on cruelty or being snide or spiteful," Mr. Crook says. He describes "Detectorists" as a "celebration of ordinary people and their pastimes."

The second season of the series, which aired late last year in the U.K., recently premiered in the U.S. and Canada on Acorn TV, a streaming service focused on British TV shows.

"The show could conceivably have been about fishing or bird-watching or other meditative things that take you out to the country. But there's a beautiful if clumsy bit of symbolism in metal detecting," Mr. Crook says. "They're searching for a connection to the past, though finding gold and becoming rich is always in the back of their minds."

The characters' nerdy hobby was partly inspired by Mr. Crook's father, who had a passion for coin collecting that the actor didn't share while growing up. But in recent years the actor became a collector, too, gravitating to U.S. specimens, including a "very early colonial half penny from 1723." He adds, "Don't get me started on coins."

To read the complete article, see:
Mackenzie Crook's 'Detectorists' Seek Treasure and Happiness (www.wsj.com/articles/mackenzie-crooks-detectorists-seek-treasure-and-happiness-1460557959)