portrayed as headstrong, flirty and manipulative, early storylines featuring sam concentrate on her teen elopement with ricky butcher (sid owen). she goes on to be involved with topless modelling, various family crises, relationships, feuds, and a short-lived marriage to andy hunter (michael higgs). her exit in 2005 is the culmination of a storyline that sees sam wrongly imprisoned for den watts' (leslie grantham) murder. sam is cleared of murder and released, but she flees the country to escape another prison sentence for perverting the course of justice. her brief return in 2009 sees sam resurrect her relationship with ricky whilst having an on-off affair with jack branning (scott maslen), being manipulated by her uncle archie mitchell (larry lamb) and causing her family to lose a number of their businesses again before finally going to prison. her latest return sees her struggle with motherhood after giving birth to jack's baby.