Solution

I created a custom template filter, see custom template tags and filters.

from django.core.serializers import serialize
from django.db.models.query import QuerySet
from django.utils import simplejson
from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
from django.template import Library

register = Library()

def jsonify(object):
    if isinstance(object, QuerySet):
        return mark_safe(serialize('json', object))
    return mark_safe(simplejson.dumps(object))

register.filter('jsonify', jsonify)
jsonify.is_safe = True   

The calls to mark_safe are important. Otherwise Django will escape it.

In the template:

//Without template filter (you'll need to serialise in the view)
var data = jQuery.parseJSON('{{ json_data|safe }}');
alert(data.length);

//Using the template filter    
var data2 = jQuery.parseJSON('{{ record_list|jsonify }}');
alert(data2.length);

Note the single quotes around the template tag.

Although my next question would be – is it REALLY safe?

Update

An updated version working in django 1.8 of the above template tag that also handles being passed a flat values list, ie. values_list(‘myfield’, flat=True):

from django.core.serializers import serialize
from django.db.models.query import QuerySet, ValuesListQuerySet
from django.template import Library

import json

register = Library()

@register.filter( is_safe=True )
def jsonify(object):

    if isinstance(object, ValuesListQuerySet):
        return json.dumps(list(object))
    if isinstance(object, QuerySet):
        return serialize('json', object)
    return json.dumps(object)