Eline van der Velden’s UK indie, Particle6 Productions, has acquired the rights to Marieke Lexmond’s six-book fantasy series, The Madigan Chronicles. 
 

The company is taking an unusual approach to the development of the content, with a merchandise-first approach to test the IP and grow the potential audience via social media, ahead of production.  
 

While Lexmond is working on a pilot script for The Dagger (one of the books in the series), Particle6 is creating videos for WitchTok (on TikTok) and selling Magical Spell necklaces, which come with a ‘positive spell’. 
 

Particle6’s received a 2023 Innovate UK Creative Catalyst grant. Part of UK Research and Innovation, this government-funded programme supports companies in the creative industries to scale up innovation and grow their business.
 

The Madigan Chronicles is a mystical family drama about three generations of headstrong witches and their struggle to work together to keep a centuries-old promise and stop a dark witch from claiming a powerful elemental object…and causing all sorts of magical mayhem. They are illustrated by illustrated by Nicole Ruijgrok. 
 

Van der Velden, founder of Particle6 Productions, said: “I’ve known Marieke for a while and have always been a big fan of her work, so I am thrilled that Innovate UK saw the same potential we did and awarded us a Creative Catalyst grant so that we could explore and extend the world of The Madigan Chronicles.
 

“Particle6 is big on testing and analytics, and we always work hard to identify the right audience for every project. Given what Marieke and Nicole have already established, we have a brilliant opportunity to build on that and test and grow the market. 
 

“We know that witches and witchcraft are extremely popular topics right now, but if we can take a beautifully written script into a broadcaster or streamer, along with insightful audience data built around analytics from interactions with bespoke social media content and in-demand merchandise – as well as book sales – we will be presenting a very compelling case to greenlight a (potentially long-running) series. And if that doesn’t work, we can of course resort to a casting a spell on commissioners!” 
 

Lexmond added: “In Eline and Particle6 Productions I found the perfect partners to expand The Madigan Chronicles universe.”

Marieke Lexmond, The Madigan Chronicles and Eline van der Velden
 

Particle6’s credits include the Gender Bias Riddle and Putting It Out There, both for BBC Three. Its has collaborated with BBC Bitesize and BBC Teach with credits that include the Imperial War Museum’s WW2 series, Ivy’s Plant Shop and British Asian History as well as delivering young people’s content regionally for BBC Scotland and BBC Wales. Particle6 also created comedy series Miss Holland (BBC Three) and Look See Wow! for Sky Kids.
 

Particle6 has been selected as a Pact Future30 company, for the Channel4 Emerging Indie Fund and been part of Creative UK’s Female Founders scheme.

Image: Marieke Lexmond, The Madigan Chronicles and Eline van der Velden.