Francesca Martinez made her debut appearance on BBC Radio 4's topical panel show "The News Quiz", alongside regulars Jeremy Hardy and Sandi Toksvig. She appeared on "The News Quiz" again in January and July 2013. Martinez has become a regular face on television, including appearances on "The Frank Skinner Show," in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's comedy series "Extras", "Russell Howard's Good News" BBC Three, The Jonathan Ross Show, ITV's Loose Women, "Free Speech" BBC3, RTÉ's "The Saturday Night Show" with Brendan O'Connor, "Adam Hills Tonight" and "Spicks & Specks". On 8 December 2012, Martinez launched a campaign "War on Welfare" which
Radio 4 News FM required. In response, BBC Radio 5 Live was launched in 1994. When coalition forces began military operations against Iraq following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait the previous year, the BBC discontinued broadcasting the usual mixed schedule on BBC Radio 4's FM frequency and replaced it with a rolling news service, known by the emergency staff as "Scud FM", named after "Saddam Hussein's most notorious weapon," the Russian-made Scud missile which Iraq was firing at Tel Aviv. BBC staff had managed to launch a 17 hours-a-day rolling news channel (without time to concoct an official name) with less than 24 hours notice