List of The Bill Characters (M-P) - N - Samantha Nixon

DI Samantha Nixon was originally from Enfield, Middlesex. She is a measured person both professionally and emotionally and because of this can be accused of being closed down emotionally. Fiercely intelligent, Samantha's gained two degrees, a first in psychology after five years of studying through the Open University and a 2:1 in criminology after that. She is 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 she suspects she was the victim of sexual discrimination and has never quite come to terms with this. Samantha is a single mother; she conducts a friendship rather than a typical mother-daughter relationship with Abi. She has developed a tough emotional resilience in bringing her up, but it's not a relationship without problems. Sam is so busy analysing everyone else that she has not time to analyse and understand herself, or her rebellious daughter. In the station, Sam's too clever to be drawn into office politics, earning Meadows's respect and trust. However, she is constantly trying to prove her worth and this can sometimes get the better of her usually sound judgement. Samantha's choice of subjects is a heavy indication that she is almost obsessed about understanding the world around her. Her instinctive skill at reading people earns her an "off limits" tag by some people, afraid that she might find something out about them. So occasionally Samantha feels isolated from the department but has the emotional resilience to wear it. She has few real friends in Sun Hill; her relationship with Gina Gold is probably the closest that comes to friendship. Both harbour 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 will never quite believe that her gender did not 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 led 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 have now developed a healthy rapport, particularly now that Sam has regained her rank and will be working alongside him on equal footing. Sam left Sun Hill in June 2009 and was transferred to the Child Exploitation Unit.