The hurricane wasn't great. It was adequate and above all it was cheap. The Spitfire was fast and highly-maneuverable, but it suffered from a very limited range. Now as for Operation Torch and the entire North African campaign, the hurricane was generally sent to attack convoys and was only marginally effective against tanks. The primary air-to-ground fighter in North Africa was the Curtis P-40. The Hurricane was indeed very nimble due to a fabric construction, but that also killed it. It took the Germans less than a week during the Battle of Britain to figure out that just a couple of incindiary rounds would turn it into a flying piece of bacon. The British approached North American in an effort to get them to open a new factory to create more P-40s to replace the severely outdated Hurricane. Instead, North American promised an entirely new design and delivered the first P-51 Mustang prototype in 121 days, fitted with the same Allison engine that powered the P-40. Mustangs being the dominant plane in the European theater aside, the Spitfire was still used to tremendous effect and proved to be a highly versatile airframe, seeing service well into the 1950s.
As for night intruders: early in the war, while the Mosquito was still in development, a small number of Hurricanes were sent out to test new techniques for night-fighting. However, they weren't very successful and were eaten alive at the hands of Luftwaffe pilots who had been perfecting night-fighting tactics for years. The Mosquito was by far the most versatile airframe produced during the war. It had far greater capacity than the Hurricane, flew faster, flew longer, killed more Germans. It was in effect the first stealth fighter, since early radar couldn't detect the limited amounts of metal incorporated into the airframe. Point being, the Hurricane is great as an icon, but even he RAF will tell you it was severely outdated at the very start of the war. It was just available in quantity and it was cheap and easy to produce. The Spitfire and Mosquito will always outclass it in every area except turning radius. But, exactly how much good does it do you to be able to out-turn everyone when a single incindiary round can torch you on a regular basis? You will only be so lucky so many times.
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