Was he sad he couldn't give the news to the country? (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
town crier
'sad he couldn't give the news to the country?' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'was he' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'he' could be 'town' and 'town' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'crier' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for town crier that I've seen before include "He would have publicised" , "'The person who used to make public announcements in the streets (4,5)'" , "Announcer" , "Formerly, an official who made public announcements" , "Bellman" .)