diff --git a/django/core/cache/backends/memcached.py b/django/core/cache/backends/memcached.py
index 15f3cc0bf8..c3f20bab8a 100644
--- a/django/core/cache/backends/memcached.py
+++ b/django/core/cache/backends/memcached.py
@@ -43,15 +43,9 @@ class CacheClass(BaseCache):
         val = self._cache.get(smart_str(key))
         if val is None:
             return default
-        else:
-            if isinstance(val, basestring):
-                return smart_unicode(val)
-            else:
-                return val
+        return val
 
     def set(self, key, value, timeout=0):
-        if isinstance(value, unicode):
-            value = value.encode('utf-8')
         self._cache.set(smart_str(key), value, self._get_memcache_timeout(timeout))
 
     def delete(self, key):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/cache/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/cache/tests.py
index 3a6c168530..ee10fad664 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/cache/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/cache/tests.py
@@ -278,6 +278,16 @@ class BaseCacheTests(object):
             self.cache.set(key, value)
             self.assertEqual(self.cache.get(key), value)
 
+    def test_binary_string(self):
+        # Binary strings should be cachable
+        from zlib import compress, decompress
+        value = 'value_to_be_compressed'
+        compressed_value = compress(value)
+        self.cache.set('binary1', compressed_value)
+        compressed_result = self.cache.get('binary1')
+        self.assertEqual(compressed_value, compressed_result)
+        self.assertEqual(value, decompress(compressed_result))
+
     def test_long_timeout(self):
         '''
         Using a timeout greater than 30 days makes memcached think