diff --git a/countess/core/logger.py b/countess/core/logger.py
index 713309a..d7dc7c6 100644
--- a/countess/core/logger.py
+++ b/countess/core/logger.py
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@ def error(self, message: str, detail: Optional[str] = None):
 
     def exception(self, exception: Exception):
         # Slightly odd calling to maintain compatibility with 3.9 and 3.10
+        # XXX format more nicely
         message = traceback.format_exception(None, value=exception, tb=None)
+        message += "\n\n" + "".join(traceback.format_tb(exception.__traceback__))
         self.error(str(exception), detail="".join(message))
 
     def clear(self):
diff --git a/countess/core/plugins.py b/countess/core/plugins.py
index bb54d0a..6a81906 100644
--- a/countess/core/plugins.py
+++ b/countess/core/plugins.py
@@ -413,12 +413,15 @@ class PandasTransformDictToXMixin:
     """Transformer which takes a row as a dictionary"""
 
     def dataframe_to_series(self, dataframe: pd.DataFrame, logger: Logger) -> pd.Series:
+        # XXX there is a bug in Pandas 2.1.x which prevents
+        # args and kwargs getting passed through when raw=True
+        # this seems to be fixed in Pandas 2.2.0.dev so
+        # hopefully this lambda can be removed some day.
+        # https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/55009
         return dataframe.apply(
-            self.process_raw,
+            lambda x: self.process_raw(x, list(dataframe.columns), logger),
             axis=1,
             raw=True,
-            columns=list(dataframe.columns),
-            logger=logger,
         )
 
     def process_dict(self, data, logger: Logger):
diff --git a/countess/plugins/python.py b/countess/plugins/python.py
index 4d34094..6e5b389 100644
--- a/countess/plugins/python.py
+++ b/countess/plugins/python.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from types import CodeType
+
 import pandas as pd
 
 from countess import VERSION
@@ -18,7 +20,6 @@
 # PandasTransformDictToDictPlugin
 # which is a bit more efficient.
 
-
 class PythonPlugin(PandasTransformRowToDictPlugin):
     name = "Python Code"
     description = "Apply python code to each row."
@@ -35,13 +36,18 @@ class PythonPlugin(PandasTransformRowToDictPlugin):
         "code": TextParam("Python Code"),
     }
 
+    code_object = None
+
     def process_row(self, row: pd.Series, logger: Logger):
         assert isinstance(self.parameters["code"], TextParam)
         assert isinstance(self.parameters["columns"], PerColumnArrayParam)
-        code_object = compile(self.parameters["code"].value, "<PythonPlugin>", mode="exec")
+        assert isinstance(self.code_object, CodeType)
 
         row_dict = dict(row)
-        exec(code_object, {}, row_dict)  # pylint: disable=exec-used
+        try:
+            exec(self.code_object, {}, row_dict)  # pylint: disable=exec-used
+        except Exception as exc:  # pylint: disable=broad-exception-caught
+            logger.exception(exc)
 
         column_parameters = list(zip(self.input_columns, self.parameters["columns"].params))
         columns_to_remove = set(col for col, param in column_parameters if not param.value)
@@ -53,6 +59,9 @@ def process_dataframe(self, dataframe: pd.DataFrame, logger: Logger) -> pd.DataF
         the indexes so we can use their values easily and
         b) we don't need to merge afterwards"""
 
+        # XXX cache this?
+        self.code_object = compile(self.parameters["code"].value, "<PythonPlugin>", mode="exec")
+
         dataframe = dataframe.reset_index(drop=False)
         series = self.dataframe_to_series(dataframe, logger)
         dataframe = self.series_to_dataframe(series)