backspace problems

[kj]

If I'm in the python interactive interpreter, I get a beep when I
hit the backspace key.

I must confess, though, that my terminal is "complicated", to put
it mildly: I work on a Mac running Leopard; I open a Terminal
session, and through it I ssh to an Ubuntu server; on this server
I connect to a permanently-running GNU screen session, which has
several multiplexed windows going, all running zsh; it is in this
convoluted environment that I run the python interactive interpreter.[*]

I've determined that the problem occurs only within the GNU screen
session.  GNU screen is one of the coolest Unix programs ever, one
that literally changed the way I work, is there's no way I'll stop
using it.  So I need to figure out how to fix this.

How can I determine the character that the python session is
receiving when I hit the backspace key, and how can I tell it to
handle it as a backward-delete character?

TIA!

kynn

[*] Actually, it gets worse.  My .zshrc file (which gets executed
whenever an interactive shell is started) runs the command

  bindkey '^[[3~' backward-delete-char

because, otherwise my regular zsh interaction would not handle the
backspace key properly.  But the problem I described above occurs
whether this command is executed or not.


-- 
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.