René Zagger
Encyclopedia
René Zagger is an English
actor, probably best known for playing PC Nick Klein in The Bill
from 1999 to 2004. He has also made several guest appearances in Casualty
, and Wycliffe
.
, London
. His father is of Russian
-Polish
ancestry and his mother is of Spanish
-Portuguese
ancestry. Zagger was raised a practising Jew by his parents but now considers himself to be more traditionalist. While attending Davenant Foundation School his interest in acting began affecting his attendance, so the headmaster suggested that he move to an acting school. He left his school and enrolled at Italia Conti Academy
of Performing Arts.
in the Wet Wet Wet
music video Sweet Surrender. Other roles soon followed, from 1990–1991, Zagger played Mike Bentley in the children's TV drama Grange Hill
, and later in 1991 he played the role of "Razors" in the Granada Television
series Up the Garden Path
. He also had several guest roles in Minder
, Casualty
, Wycliffe
, Dangerous Lady and The Bill
.
In 1999, Zagger auditioned for the role of Dale Smith
in The Bill, but the role went to his best friend Alex Walkinshaw
and the character of PC Nick Klein was created for him. Zagger remained in the role for five years. Zagger left the series and took the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in the Stafford
festival's production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
.
In 2006 Rene starred in the Dream Team mini series Dream Team 80's as striker Johnny Fletcher, who was the father to Harchester legend Karl Fletcher
.
In 2006, Zagger filmed the historical drama, O Jerusalem, and vampire
-horror film Night Junkies with Giles Alderson and Katia Winter
. O Jerusalem was shown in France
on October 18, 2006, and Night Junkies was released in December.
In 2006, he appeared in the BBC
series Robin Hood in the episode "A Thing or Two About Loyalty
" as Lambert.
In 2007 Zagger played the Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu
who leaked the existence of the Israeli secret Nuclear Weapons plant at Dimona
in 1986 and was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad
in the BBC
Nuclear Secrets
episode; Vanunu and the Bomb
In June 2007, he appeared in the Doctor Who
in the episode "Utopia
" as Padra.
In July 2007, Zagger appeared as Herod in the second series of BBC
/HBO TV series, Rome
.
Autumn 2008 saw Zagger guest star in two major BBC1 crime series; he played an alcoholic ex-army Tottenham Hotspur supporter in New Tricks, and an Australian, Danny, in Silent Witness
.
In January 2008, he made an appearance as Colt Winchester (Colin from Winchester) in the 5th episode of series three of MIHigh called 'Dark Star'
In January 2010, he made an appearance as Farris Andreou in the second episode in the second series of 'Law and Order UK' called "Hidden".
In June 2011, he made an appearance in the TV sitcom, My Family.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor, probably best known for playing PC Nick Klein in The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
from 1999 to 2004. He has also made several guest appearances in Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, and Wycliffe
Wycliffe (TV series)
Wycliffe is a British TV series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe . It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network, following a pilot episode on 7 August 1993, between 24 July 1994 and 5 July 1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a...
.
Background
Zagger was born in LeytonstoneLeytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His father is of Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
-Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
ancestry and his mother is of Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
-Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
ancestry. Zagger was raised a practising Jew by his parents but now considers himself to be more traditionalist. While attending Davenant Foundation School his interest in acting began affecting his attendance, so the headmaster suggested that he move to an acting school. He left his school and enrolled at Italia Conti Academy
Italia Conti Academy
The Italia Conti Academy is a theatre arts training school based in London. It was founded in 1911 by actress Italia Conti...
of Performing Arts.
Career
Zagger's first professional acting role was portraying a young Marti PellowMarti Pellow
Marti Pellow has been the lead singer of the Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet since their formation in 1982. He has also recorded solo material.-Early life:...
in the Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish pop rock band that formed in the 1980s. They scored a number of hits in the British charts and around the world. The band is composed of Marti Pellow , Tommy Cunningham , Graeme Clark and Neil Mitchell...
music video Sweet Surrender. Other roles soon followed, from 1990–1991, Zagger played Mike Bentley in the children's TV drama Grange Hill
Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television...
, and later in 1991 he played the role of "Razors" in the Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
series Up the Garden Path
Up the Garden Path
Up the Garden Path was a 1984 novel by Sue Limb which was then adapted into a radio series by BBC Radio 4 and later into a television sitcom by Granada TV for ITV...
. He also had several guest roles in Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, Wycliffe
Wycliffe (TV series)
Wycliffe is a British TV series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe . It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network, following a pilot episode on 7 August 1993, between 24 July 1994 and 5 July 1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a...
, Dangerous Lady and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
In 1999, Zagger auditioned for the role of Dale Smith
Dale Smith (The Bill)
Dale Smith is a fictional character played by Alex Walkinshaw in the British police procedural television series, The Bill. He first appeared in 1999 as a police constable, and eventually became inspector.-Character history:...
in The Bill, but the role went to his best friend Alex Walkinshaw
Alex Walkinshaw
Alex Newcombe Walkinshaw is an English actor best known for playing the role of Inspector Dale "Smithy" Smith in ITV's long running police procedural series, The Bill.-Early life and career:...
and the character of PC Nick Klein was created for him. Zagger remained in the role for five years. Zagger left the series and took the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in the Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
festival's production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
.
In 2006 Rene starred in the Dream Team mini series Dream Team 80's as striker Johnny Fletcher, who was the father to Harchester legend Karl Fletcher
Karl Fletcher
Karl Fletcher was a character in the Sky One drama Dream Team played by Terry Kiely. He is the only character to have appeared in every series of the show until the death of the character in the 2004-05 series, at which point he has appeared in a flashback, and most recently, a ghost.Fletcher has...
.
In 2006, Zagger filmed the historical drama, O Jerusalem, and vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
-horror film Night Junkies with Giles Alderson and Katia Winter
Katia Winter
Katia Winter is a Swedish actress.Katia Winter moved to England at an early age. She pursued a career in acting after studying film, screen acting and editing in London and Stockholm...
. O Jerusalem was shown in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on October 18, 2006, and Night Junkies was released in December.
In 2006, he appeared in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Robin Hood in the episode "A Thing or Two About Loyalty
A Thing Or Two About Loyalty
"A Thing or Two About Loyalty" is the ninth episode of the 2006 Robin Hood television series, made by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC One. It aired on Saturday 2 December 2006 at 7pm.-Plot:...
" as Lambert.
In 2007 Zagger played the Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...
who leaked the existence of the Israeli secret Nuclear Weapons plant at Dimona
Dimona
Dimona is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, to the south of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. Its population at the end of 2007 was 33,600.-History:...
in 1986 and was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Nuclear Secrets
Nuclear Secrets
Nuclear Secrets, aka Spies, Lies and the Superbomb, is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama series which looks at the race for nuclear supremacy from the Manhattan Project through to the Pakistani nuclear weapons.-Production:...
episode; Vanunu and the Bomb
In June 2007, he appeared in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
in the episode "Utopia
Utopia (Doctor Who)
"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...
" as Padra.
In July 2007, Zagger appeared as Herod in the second series of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
/HBO TV series, Rome
Rome (TV series)
Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
.
Autumn 2008 saw Zagger guest star in two major BBC1 crime series; he played an alcoholic ex-army Tottenham Hotspur supporter in New Tricks, and an Australian, Danny, in Silent Witness
Silent Witness
Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...
.
In January 2008, he made an appearance as Colt Winchester (Colin from Winchester) in the 5th episode of series three of MIHigh called 'Dark Star'
In January 2010, he made an appearance as Farris Andreou in the second episode in the second series of 'Law and Order UK' called "Hidden".
In June 2011, he made an appearance in the TV sitcom, My Family.