DI Samantha Nixon   played by Lisa Maxwell

First appearance    # 038 (27/08/02)        

Samantha Nixon was originally from Enfield, North London. She was a measured person both professionally and emotionally and because of this could be accused of being closed down emotionally. Fiercely intelligent, Samantha gained two degrees, a first in Psychology after 5 years of Open University and a 2:1 in Criminology after that. She was genuinely, academically interested in police work and prior to joining Sun Hill, trained in criminal profiling but failed to be accepted into the Met's profiling team. Sam was by far one of the most capable of candidates but still no result - she suspected she was the victim of sexual discrimination.

Samantha was a single-mother; she conducted a friendship rather than a typical mother/daughter relationship with Abi. She developed a tough emotional resilience in bringing her up, but it wasn't a relationship without problems. Sam was often so busy analysing everyone else that she hadn't time to analyse and understand herself, or her rebellious daughter. In the station, Sam was too clever to be drawn into office politics, earning Meadows' respect and trust. However, she was constantly trying to prove her worth and this could sometimes get the better of her usually sound judgement.

Samantha's choice of subjects was a heavy indication that she was almost obsessed about understanding the world around her. Her instinctive skill at reading people earned her an 'off limits' tag by some people, afraid that she might find something out about them. So occasionally Samantha felt isolated from the department but had the emotional resilience to wear it. She had few real friends in Sun Hill; her relationship with Gina was probably the closest that came to friendship. Both harboured a mutual respect after recognising a little of themselves in each other; qualities such as instinct, a no-nonsense resilience and a steely self belief designed to protect themselves from the prejudices of a police service still quietly regarded as a man's world.

Intensely ambitious, Samantha was devastated when she was passed over for the permanent position of DI having been Acting DI for over a year. Although Okaro's reasons for not recommending her were perfectly legitimate (he felt she lacked experience as a manager), Samantha never quite believed that her gender didn't play a part in the decision. When DI Neil Manson arrived at Sun Hill, Samantha's ongoing feud with Phil Hunter was superseded with a new determination to prove herself more capable than her boss. Samantha became paranoid that Neil was trying to get rid of her and her eagerness to prove herself lead her to make mistakes. This relationship was further complicated by the fact that she found herself inexplicably attracted to him; in many ways he was everything she admired: cool, calm, ambitious and not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. The two eventually overcame their initial difficulties and developed a healthy rapport, particularly when Sam regained her rank and began working alongside him on equal footing.

After seven years at Sun Hill, Sam transferred to the Child Exploitation Unit.