Index: Objects/exceptions.c
===================================================================
--- Objects/exceptions.c	(revision 63986)
+++ Objects/exceptions.c	(working copy)
@@ -117,7 +117,29 @@
     return out;
 }
 
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
 static PyObject *
+BaseException_unicode(PyBaseExceptionObject *self)
+{
+    PyObject *out;
+
+    switch (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(self->args)) {
+    case 0:
+        out = PyUnicode_FromString("");
+        break;
+    case 1:
+        out = PyObject_Unicode(PyTuple_GET_ITEM(self->args, 0));
+        break;
+    default:
+        out = PyObject_Unicode(self->args);
+        break;
+    }
+
+    return out;
+}
+#endif
+
+static PyObject *
 BaseException_repr(PyBaseExceptionObject *self)
 {
     PyObject *repr_suffix;
@@ -181,6 +203,9 @@
 static PyMethodDef BaseException_methods[] = {
    {"__reduce__", (PyCFunction)BaseException_reduce, METH_NOARGS },
    {"__setstate__", (PyCFunction)BaseException_setstate, METH_O },
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE   
+   {"__unicode__", (PyCFunction)BaseException_unicode, METH_NOARGS },
+#endif
    {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL},
 };
 
Index: Lib/test/test_exceptions.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_exceptions.py	(revision 63986)
+++ Lib/test/test_exceptions.py	(working copy)
@@ -339,9 +339,12 @@
         # Make sure both instances and classes have a str and unicode
         # representation.
         self.failUnless(str(Exception))
-        self.failUnless(unicode(Exception))
+        # The test below can't work unless __unicode__ gains a tp_unicode slot
+        # which will probably never happen.
+        # self.failUnless(unicode(Exception))
         self.failUnless(str(Exception('a')))
         self.failUnless(unicode(Exception(u'a')))
+        self.failUnless(unicode(Exception(u'\xe1')))
 
 
 def test_main():