Lisa Maxwell quits The Bill

Actress Lisa Maxwell has announced she is to leave the ITV drama series The Bill after seven years playing Samantha Nixon.

Lisa Maxwell has announced she’s quitting her role of DI Samantha Nixon in ITV’s long-running drama series The Bill. The actress has been in the series for seven years and her decision to quit comes after last week’s announcement that ITV were cutting the number of episodes for The Bill per year in half and were also moving it to a 9pm slot. The news was seen by some as a signal that The Bill’s time may be up.

“I’ve loved every minute of my seven years on The Bill but feel I have taken the character of Sam as far as I can. It is time to move on to new challenges. When people start referring to you as the longest-standing female cast member it is probably time to take the hint.” Lisa Maxwell

A spokesperson for Talkback Thames, producers of The Bill, confirmed the actress’ departure from the series. Maxwell joined The Bill in 2002 following a massive revamp of the series by Paul Marquiss which saw the axings of a string of characters and the addition of newer characters in order to spice up the drama. Maxwell is one of the longest serving actors on the series now as there have been so many departures over the past seven years.

As The Bill drops to just one episode a week it’s highly likely they’ll be more departures announced over the next few months as producers trim down the cast to accommodate the reduction in episodes.