Among many other things, 2016 has turned out to be the year where we lost an unusually high number of our musical and showbiz heroes - from music legends like Bowie, Prince and Leonard Cohen, to boxing great Muhammad Ali, it was the year of realising that our heroes are not going to last forever. In Screen Gems, Irene Gardiner remembers some of her favourites from the year's in memoriam roll-call, with some interesting screen moments from their lives.

The 1986  pulp and paper mill strike in Kawerau were so bitter and divisive, they cast a shadow even now over the town. That's what author and former psychologist Helen McNeill discovered when she started to research for her debut novel A Striking Truth. Sir James Fletcher opened the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill in the early 1950s and it became the region's biggest employer. Helen says the mill used to be like one big family, until Hugh Fletcher took over and changed the culture of the factory.

Auckland hit The Best Possible Album Party That Anybody Has Ever Been Two will play at Wellington BATS’ Theatre, bringing the sound of actors Kate McGill and Frith Horan’s formerly sensational pop duo to the capital.

The time of the Queen's visit to New Zealand for the 150th Treaty of Waitangi signing celebrations, is the setting for a new novel, We The Ones. Julie Helean has created an activist group where members are fervent, but deeply divided on how to achieve their plans to disrupt the visit.

On At the Movies this week: Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard as spies fighting Nazis in Allied, Terence Davies adapts a Scottish classic in Sunset Song and Michael Keaton changes the face of food service in The Founder.

It’s party central in Hokitika this weekend as the West coast town commemorates the life of former Premier King Dick Seddon. It's the 150th anniversary of Richard John Seddon's arrival in New Zealand.

Local historian David Verrall portrays the larger than life figure for tourists - in full period dress and wearing Seddon's own cufflinks, a traditional gold nugget on his watch chain and a vowel shifting Lancashire accent, as well as the help of some padding.

In 1966 bushranger turned murderer, Richard Burgess, was hung alongside other members of his notorious and ruthless gang. They'd killed innocent travellers on the Maungatapu Track.

Burgess left behind a confession but it was more to condemn a whistleblower than to atone for his many sins.

Christchurch based writer Wayne Martin tells the full story in Murder on the Maungatapu: A narrative history of the Burgess gang and their greatest crime.

Hilary Low’s book Pay Dirt is based on the diary and book The Westland Goldfield by prospector William Smart - the man, she argues, that should be acknowledged as the first person to discover payable gold on the West coast.He left Christchurch in 1862 to prospect for gold on the coast, at that stage an uncharted wilderness.

Rotorua's iconic Museum of Art and History is closed indefinitely, after damage done two weeks ago by the 7.8 quake. The Director is confident the community will rally if money need to be raised to fix the former Bath House.  Cracks appeared in pillars, walls and beams, forcing the closure of the 100 year old heritage building. It's the central oldest part of the museum that's been damaged - recent extensions have come through just fine. Museum director Stewart Brown says it will be a few days before the next step can be decided, while the latest engineers report is studied.

Novelist-turned-screenwriter Eleanor Catton has been at work adapting her Man Booker Prize winning novel The Luminaries for the small screen. A six-part TV miniseries is due to start shooting in 2017 and will screen on the BBC in 2018.