But what you -- what you said, Barack, though, about British and America soldiers fighting together, sometimes dying together, serving together, is absolutely right.

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The timid 1940s had tragic films with the hero and heroine thwarted in the path of love and dying singly or together while singing memorable songs.

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But for Tarmey's final appearance in the soap two years ago, Jack and Vera were reunited one last time when they appeared to dance together as a dying Jack drifted in and out of consciousness.

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The resigned Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and his bipolar adopted sister, Sonia (Kristine Nielsen), have been rusticated in this backwater, first looking after their dying parents, and now living together, without work or purpose, while a third sibling, Masha (the droll Sigourney Weaver), a famous actress, supports them from afar.

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