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Pixie Mason (Judy McBurney)

Real name: Sandra Louise Mason. First arrives at the second Driscoll House (377) under the name Sandy Gilham, claiming to be running away from her husband, but she confuses everyone by having different stories about him - calling him either Phillip, James or Eddie depending who she is talking to. Phillip turns up at Driscoll, looking for Pixie after she ran away from their wedding, and James also comes looking for his wife Pixie, who Judy recognises from a photo as "Sandy". The police later catch up with Pixie and arrest her for bigamy and fraud, and she is taken to Wentworth on remand (379), where James visits her. There is an implication in (379) that Pixie has married six men in total, and that the police only know about four of them.

After seeing her solicitor, Pixie stages a number of stunts to convince the officers she has lost her memory, including pretending to be Joan of Arc. At her trial, she tries to blame her twin sister Audrey for her crimes, but the judge is not convinced and sentences her to five years (380). Pixie then tries to have herself transferred to a psychiatric hospital by acting crazy in various fanciful ways, and even sees Dr Weismann, but Ann tells her her plan has not worked (383). The women write her an anonymous love letter to try to cheer her up, and Pixie works her way through various unlikely suspects (including Wally) until the women have to tell her the truth. Perhaps inspired by this, Pixie writes a lonely hearts ad which is smuggled out of the prison, and eventually six of Pixie's respondents arrive at Wentworth to visit her (402). She becomes an expert pickpocket after Minnie's classes, and becomes involved in Randi Goodlove's attempt to frame Meg when she lifts the necklace Randi plants on Meg (412). After a social worker tries unsuccessfully to find Pixie a job, she arranges one herself at a wedding dress shop after she escapes from Meg on an outside visit for another interview (418). She meets her fourth husband Ralph while on work rrelease (422) and he abducts her by convincing her that Colleen has given permission to leave Wentworth to get married (427).

Pixie is not seen again until (442), when she panics and gives herself up to two policemen who happen to visit the jeweller's shop where she is working. She shares a cell with Margo and is appalled by her drug dealing. Pixie gets an extra six months on her sentence for escaping (445) and is moved to share with Cass (447). After an electric shock, she claims to remember killing Ralph, but he turns up to visit her in (449). In (453), she becomes one of Dr Edmunds' dubious successes when his hypnotism convinces her to give up marriage, and is released to her old job in (460). Judy reads a letter from Pixie to the women in (469).

Pixie makes a surprise reappearance in (484) on a three month sentence for shoplifting, and immediately agrees to help with the plot to frame Joan for sexually molesting her, though this does not succeed. Judy responds to Pixie's reappearance by writing "Pixie's Song" (488) and Pixie finds it and (vaguely) comes to realise how Judy feels about her. Pixie's father, Mr Potter, visits her with news that his marriage has broken down: despite being a parson, he brings his new girlfriend with him on the visit (502). Frank Burke, one of the male prisoners, gropes Pixie when she brings his meal to solitary (503), though Pixie seems to have found a new "husband" when she nurses another of the men, Matt Delaney, in the infirmary (504). Pixie is beaten up by Lou Kelly for revealing her cocaine stash (505), which makes Yemil speak for the first time when she alerts the other women. Pixie repays the favour by stopping Yemil when she is about to hang herself (507).

Pixie's end is one of the cruellest things ever to happen to a character in "Prisoner": when Frank Burke makes an advance to her she punches him, and he drags her into the library and rapes her (510). Myra reluctantly agrees to Joan's plan to frame Len Murray for the rape - despite Judy's protests. Pixie has a breakdown and is transferred to a mental hospital (511).

However, Pixie lives on after her last appearance. To divert her from singing her own awful songs, Judy teaches Sheila Brady to sing "Pixie's Song" (520), which becomes a hit when Sheila releases it as her own song (530). When Judy is eventually released (534) after winning a case to claim copyright in the song, "Pixie's Song" is played over a selection of classic Pixie moments. In a way, this could be seen as a subtle criticism of Judy, as Pixie is presumably still in a mental hospital, since she (and Cass) are mentioned in (581), when Ann visits Ingleside to investigate Reb's treatment there.


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