Python Script access string from cell 0,0

Im new and this feels like the most basic of scripting questions

I have an input table with 1 column and 1 row, that 1 cell has a JSON string in it

I pass this to a python script, and accessing the JSON string seems unnecessarily complicated.

The docs seem to push me to

data = knio.inputtables[0].topandas()

I can then get the data from the cell with

String = data.iloc[0,0]

however Pandas has converted the string to a dict and split the first element out of the JSON string to make the key and the rest as the value.

So now I would need to reconstruct the string from the key and value.

I must be missing something obvious, it cant be this difficult to just fetch the contents of cell 0,0 from the input data

Thankyou for the help

Tim