Serious television watchers and cinephiles prefer subtitles; they provide a viewing environment that reflects well on the viewer, marking them as a person of some distinction.
Such important people - let's use the first person plural pronoun to describe us- prefer calling foreign productions by their foreign name. That is why we call the latest Scandinavian drama series by its Danish name Arvingerne, rather than its English translation The Legacy.
We had no idea Arvingerne meant The Legacy; we had to rely on Wikipedia to find out.
Such pretensions should not put the viewer off The Legacy.
The group of very cold countries near the Arctic have been leading the way for drama of late, and The Legacy comes from the makers of the wonderful The Killing (we call it Forbrydelsen) and Borgen, which I haven't seen.
These shows can be a trifle dark, with The Killing trawling the seamier side of Danish life for its subjects, amid death and human misery.
There is just one death in episode one of The Legacy and it is (shock, horror) of natural causes.
The show, unfortunately perhaps, is running on a channel not part of the basic Sky package, meaning fewer viewers. It begins on the Arts channel on April 16.
It is unfortunate because it looks very, very good.
The show was first broadcast on Danish television early last year, and is set for a second series.
It tells the story of four siblings trying to cope with the death of their mother, an internationally recognised and clearly difficult artist with three children.
Veronika Gronnegaard has difficult relationships with those children, and she has some secrets.
She takes what appears to be an unusual liking to a young woman who works at a flower shop.
She draws her a picture, which the young woman shows her parents.
Her parents exchange odd, worried looks.
The reason for all this becomes apparent as episode one plays out, and leaves a clear mess of difficulties as the children approach the break-up of the mother's estate.
Those challenges involve a complex set of secrets and lies, and violent upheavals in the past.
The Legacy is also pleasingly foreign.
The sporting scene that opens the show features handball, one of the players is named Baggeson, and names such as Tolsgaard and Oberg crop up regularly.
It is Christmas, and the families involved are preparing for Noel.
In Denmark, this appears to involve beer, schnapps and gluhwein.
''You stink of the gluhwein,'' one character tells another.
The show has received some rave reviews in the UK, and looks to be a continuation of great television from the far north.
Worth watching if you can.
Farvel (that's Danish for ''goodbye'', according to Wiki).
• Charles Loughrey
